Tuesday, June 8, 2010

III. ACNE





Not all Swedes have skin problems (but for those who do, some Basiron AC “för behandling av akne” may help and is available from any local Apoteket in Sweden).

The ACNE I refer to stands for Ambition to Create Novel Expressions; a creative collective started in Stockholm in 1996 by four dreamers who wanted to create and develop a lifestyle brand that eventually branched out into ACNE Film, ACNE Advertising, ACNE Digital, ACNE Paper and now ACNE Jr.

The brand originated with a range of 100 pairs of unisex jeans, recognisable for their bright red stitching, and very soon Swedish Elle featured them and they were popping up in boutiques all over Sweden.

They are now world famous and an instantly recognisable brand to all cool kids and people in the know across the globe.

Their style (they make clothes, jeans, shoes and accessories for men and women) is fashion forward, sometimes zany and often full of minimalist simplicity: a staple for Scandinavian (and particularly Swedish) style.

In short: they’re a cool brand with a lot of ambition and a unique and powerful sense of style.

And the ACNE Universe dress is really, really nice.

A heads up, if you can afford it, it’s available here, but who knows for how long.


P.S, Kära tvåhundra ACNE anställda, lämna bara pengarna under dörrmattan - ett enkelt kuvert funkar. Tack!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

swedes also make good pop, from 1967-now


The Tages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NklbWmFSvZg

Johan Mård said...

I have a friend who worked for ACNE at one point. Makes me how cool?

JLo said...

hmmm I have seen acne jeans alongside "ethical" clothing- know anything about their production processes? :) cos I agree they make some rad stuff.

Billie Elske Eloise said...

JLo, I've had a look around and can't find anything specific on the production processes of acne, but Swedes do tend to put an everyday importance on ethically sourced and created products. I can't speak for acne, but I do know that Nudie, another aesthetically and culturally awesome brand of Swedish jeans put a strong emphasis on the ethical quality of their clothing.

They support Amnesty International, use codes of conduct for their suppliers and workers and are fiercely determined to make their denim 100% organic. All of that and they look cool.

You can even get the same style for you and your boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever and walk around like twins, if you're into that sort of thing.

Hell, I'm going to give Nudie an entry..