Fashion, Design Approach, + Surfing w/ Founder of Acne Studios | “… the only thing that is not so fun is that it seems like you’re never really satisfied.”
He may be new to it and he may not be true to it, but Acne Studio founder Jonny Johansson is really into surfing. We’re always into when someone who has the abilities to pursue pretty much any hobby is drawn to surfing and takes it passionately and gets other creative people into it. So here is Saturdays interview with Jonny about his design and creative processes, fashion, and surfing…..
Sample:
mc: Do you think that it’s something that’s going to continue to influence you? It influenced you recently in a couple of your collections, right?
jj: Yeah, because my method of working is very simple. I like to make it very personal and very straightforward. When I was younger and starting in fashion, I made it more complicated, but now I have this idea of honest design. It has to come from me and it has to be something that’s relevant to me at the moment. I’ve been in the water with my sons all summer, trying to be better at surfing. We’ve been in the water at least two times a day all summer. So when they ask me what to do in the office, what’s happening, I say, “Well, I’ve been surfing.”
mc: So it’s all drawn from this honest, present state.
jj: I think that’s my method. It’s my life. It’s my friends. It’s all very close and it’s not so much about being amazing or anything like that. Doing something in surfing, for me, is more the about colors. My beach is a rock beach and it’s always cold, because it’s the north of the world. There are a few girls there, and not everyone can afford to have a surfboard, so they share. They share and they pile up all the clothing—whatever they have—and wrap them into a pile on the beach. From time to time there’s a pile of clothing with one person inside, because it’s so cold. And so I worked with that experience.
mc: Have you seen the creative process evolve since the beginning? Acne started in 1995.
jj: The thing is, I don’t think I’d be in this industry if it weren’t for that moment when it first happened. It was a moment of deconstruction and DIY, so you could do something that looked really shitty and have it be accepted as a great design.
Click to SATURDAYS for the interview with Acne Studios Founder Jonny Johansson
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