Acne's Gallery Approach

In the two decades since Swedish design supremo Jonny Johansson launched Acne Jeans with three friends, the cult denim and fashion brand has certainly lived up to its name—“Acne” stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions.” In addition to establishing itself as one of the world’s most in-demand and influential denim labels, the company has introduced the fashion biannual Acne Paper, a collaborative line with super-luxe Parisian fashion house Lanvin and, most recently, a range of furniture. Johansson is an ardent collector of chairs, objects and art, evidenced in London’s new Acne Studio, a four-story, expertly appointed house on Dover Street that happens to be the brand’s largest shop in the world. Jeremiah Goodman, perhaps the greatest interiors illustrator of our time, has recreated Johannson’s Stockholm office in a series of glorious eight-and-a-half-foot murals on the second floor. (Before this project, Johannson had never met Goodman, but he sought him out after seeing Goodman's book, A Romantic Vision.) The murals reside here along with a selection of images by photographer Katerina Jebb, drawings by Jean Cocteau, designer-turned-sculptor Helmut Lang's largest work Three, and pieces by jeweler Husam El Odeh, as well as a (get this!) canary-yellow grand piano. Acne Studio is as much a gallery as a fashion destination, and the design throughout the store's four stories (plus a roof deck) reflects the label's reigning inventiveness, with shoes seemingly floating on cantilevered shelves and denim-clad tailor’s dummies surreally populating the landscape.

The Acne Store in London was photographed exclusively for NOWNESS by Philip Sinden