BIENVENUE, ACNE!

In the final, decadent weeks of the 2010s, Acne Studios invited a throng of fabulous friends to Stockholm and threw a multi-story rave to celebrate the opening of their extraordinary new headquarters at Floragatan 13. Located in the quiet heart of the embassy district, that historic address plays host to a bunker-like building originally constructed by Jan Bocan for the Czech embassy in 1972 — its soaring volumes interconnected by secret elevators and escape routes for dignitaries. (See PIN–UP 28).

But even as Floragatan 13 became a symbol of the brand’s grasp of culture above and beyond fashion, it became abundantly clear that their Parisian presence (though already well-established) was lacking a unifying base. So, in and out of the pandemic years following that grand Stockholm opening, CEO Matthias Magnusson and founder Jonny Johansson searched far and wide, arrondissement after arrondissement, for a permanent French “seat” to match the brand’s growing Paris presence. With teams split between the two cities and the constant shuffle of fashion shows and market appointments, a second home felt inevitable.

With spacious real estate being hard to find in the city of light, it took the pair years before signing on a space that ticked all the boxes of proximity, scale, and aesthetics. “We had three offices at the same time in different parts of the city. It felt quite ridiculous,” Johansson explains, “The women’s wear team is in Paris. The bag team is Paris. The shoe team is Italy. So, we’re all split up. And then the nice thing about Stockholm is the serenity of not being in the fashion circus. I don’t mind the circus, but I don’t always want to be distracted by all these beautiful, amazing people doing amazing stuff.”

That said, their new Paris home on the rue des Petits Écuries (named after the former royal stables) is right in the thick of the 10th arrondissement and its bustling restaurant scene, a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of the Gare’s du Nord and de l’Est, and just north of the now-gentrified Sentier garment district. “For me, the beauty of the location is that it feels central, but it’s still a bit off,” says Johansson. “It’s a place where things are happening. It’s not stagnant. There are a lot of interesting people opening restaurants and things there.”

The new headquarters, designed by Swedish architects Halleroed, was once a family-owned laboratory for herbal remedies from the 1920s; now, open-plan space is bathed in natural light through large factory windows and crowned by restored arched glass brick ceilings. A discreet entrance set back from the street leads to an internal courtyard, where a life-sized marble statue by Daniel Silver is the only sign of Acne Studios’ presence. Inside, gilded moldings and Versailles parquet flooring frame Viennese artist Lukas Gschwandtner’s Freudian canvas daybed and a freestanding shell-covered candelabra by the British nail artist Sylvie Macmillan. Apart from a wall of the shelving in the label’s signature pink, a sense of “branding” is almost non-existent. Sculptures, photography, and furniture dotted throughout the space reflect an evolving curation of projects linked to the brand’s fashion shows, artist collaborations, and other cultural initiatives, speaking volumes more about the brand than any expensive finishes or corporate logos could.

Housing showrooms, ateliers, and a communal kitchen and terrace, the entire renovation is illuminated with custom designs by Parisian lighting genius Benoit Lalloz, a PIN–UP favorite (see PIN–UP 35) whose penchant for crisp, soft white light, custom blown glass lamps, and steel track fixtures have made his work a seminal feature of Acne Studios boutiques around the world for the past decade. Here, a constellation of new, dropped circular LED units in ultramarine glass adorn the smooth ceilings of the canteen, backdropped by painted and patchworked curtains by longtime Acne collaborator Max Lamb, whose primordial touch can be felt throughout the headquarters through scrunched leather sofas, welded zinc tables, and stone terrace seating in the sunken, outdoor rock garden.

The original acronym behind the brand’s name — “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions” — is further reinforced in Paris by the new permanent Acne Paper gallery space replacing the brand’s Palais Royale store. Having re-opened under its new guise this June with two shows from long-time Acne collaborators — a black-and-white portrait show by the Dutch photographer Paul Kooiker, followed by a sculptural jewellery and collage install by the Australian stylist and artist Emman — the arcade gallery’s programming is already in full swing. This month, they’ll welcome earthy, abstract ceramics by the acclaimed American photographer-turned-sculptor Peter Schlesinger during Art Basel Paris, closing a decade-long loop after publishing the artist’s first ceramics monograph in 2015.

This same spirit of connection and communication carries through the daily life of the headquarters. Indoor/outdoor entertaining is a rarity in fashion offices, but a mainstay of the brand’s insistence on upholding a sense of Swedish hospitality year-round, with the afternoon tea tradition of fika a particular highlight for visiting guests and staff alike. “When you create a space like this, where there’s something to circle around and space to share things, the meetings between people are more spontaneous,” notes Johansson. “You can more easily chat to somebody you don’t know over a cup of coffee with somebody or something to eat. Even though we’re not creating a home, I like the idea of coming home to the brand. If you come to my place, I want to offer you whatever I have: a coffee, some rhubarb, whatever it is! For us, it is a way of communicating, but with some ease to it.”