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FashionMusicArtCulture

Acne Studios' Brat Summer

26 September 2024

Did you know that ACNE stands for 'Attempt to Create Novel Expressions'? For Spring Summer 2025, Jonny Johansson and his team reminded us of this (even though he may now wince at his label’s full name) when they embraced, dare I say, Brat Summer. For those unfamiliar, ‘Brat’ can loosely be defined as an aesthetic-driven way of life, though defiance of categorisation is at its very core. A broader interpretation of the word was expanded by Lena Dunham in her piece “A Guide to Brat Summer," published in The New Yorker last August. Much like Susan Sontag's approach in her treatise Notes on Camp, Dunham describes 'Brat' as "being lazy until 10 p.m., at which point you construct a château using discarded scraps of pleather, finish it by morning, and immediately win the Pritzker Architecture Prize."

Brat is a movement defined by what it is but also, more importantly, by what it is not. It is not ‘girly swirly’ (aka matcha latte girly); equally, it is not about compliance. As an extrapolation of ‘hot girl summer’, Brat signals the end of an all-enveloping integrative holistic woo-woo wellness culture.

How are these ramblings relevant to Acne Studio’s collection? Well, in contradistinction, Johansson described Brat as “the domestic and the alien.” This definition took form in homey Sanderson floral prints applied to short and long-sleeve tops, juxtaposed with an alligator-embossed leather skirt. This same floral print, which could veer towards twee and chintzy, was paired with oversized balloon-leg jeans for contrast.

Other examples of the ‘domestic’ included shrunken cardigans with distressed hems—one in a lemon sorbet hue. There were also crocheted tops, skirts, and a long dress in mint. The alien were present in the spongey oversized tailoring, voluminous trousers (much like those jeans), and jackets with broad shoulders and a narrow silhouette, paired with a low waist and a belt slung low as well. There were tank tops as if someone had haphazardly tied loose tanks or long-sleeve tees around them at, say, a Charli XCX concert. Unsurprisingly, Acne Studios will be dressing the Brit and Australian stage partner Troye Sivan on their Sweat tour.

Johansson created a 360-degree experience where models and attendees could feel fully themselves. This immersive space was realised in collaboration with American visual artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase, who arranged a living room tableau with settees, cat sculptures, an old lamp, and a sound system. Before the show, Yunah, Moka, Minju, Wonhee, and Iroha from the South Korean girl band I'LL-IT were papped lounging on a couch spray-painted with hearts and other cartoonish scrawling. After all, feeling yourself is exactly the point—even without a trace of pale slime green.

Acne Studios Spring Summer 2025

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