‘It was time to take a fresh look at everything we did with denim,’ explains Acne Studios’ creative director Jonny Johansson of the Swedish brand’s decision to relaunch its denim line earlier this month. To mark its new 'Blå Konst' range- meaning ‘blue art’ - the brand have opened an equally masterly outpost in Shibuya, Tokyo, entirely dedicated to its new selection of men’s and women’s styles.
‘Blå Konst is a very personal project for me,’ says Johansson, who first moved into fashion design over a decade ago, when Acne Studios, then a creative agency, designed 100 pairs of raw denim jeans for its friends and family. ‘It was important to debut the concept in a place that was special,’ he adds. Like each new denim style that is created from scratch, the new 68m2 store features interior finishes exclusive to the space. Bright accents, including a sky blue carpet and an iron staircase painted signal red, are juxtaposed against metallic furnishings, like reflective stainless steel cubes, gold metal baskets and rails.
Acne Studios' 'Blå Konst' outpost in Shibuya is located near a bustling city crossing
Juxtaposition is central to Acne Studios’ retail aesthetic. In its Max Lamb-designed Madison Avenue flagship, which opened last November, the space included bronze furniture and gold accents, contrasted against organic custom-made rugs which were hand-dyed in Lamb’s London studio and hand-tufted in Sweden. This interest in contrasts is highlighted in the Shibuya store too. Two Doric lamps created from NSEPS material, hang above the shining surfaces. They also accentuate the grainy canvas fabrics and speckled materials used in Blå Konst’s accompanying accessories offering, made up of every day totes, backpacks and and trainers.
This sense of the everyday, intrinsic to the idea of denim, is echoed in the store's inclusion of rotating vertical metal blinds and office-like overhead strip lighting. Outside, the facade of the store boasts a blue neon sign with a more stand out message: ‘we are here’. It highlights the second arrival of a brand that marked its initial entry into fashion with a ubiquitous yet utterly distinct item.
The store features contrasting accents, including polished stainless steel cubes, gold rails and light fittings created from grainy NSEPS material
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Acne Studios website
ADDRESS
1-10-8 Jinnan Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 105-0041
-
First look – Bottega Veneta and Flos release a special edition of the Model 600Gino Sarfatti’s fan favourite from 1966 is born again with Bottega Veneta’s signature treatments gracing its leather base
-
We stepped inside the Stedelijk Museum's newest addition in AmsterdamAmsterdam's Stedelijk Museum has unveiled its latest addition, the brand-new Don Quixote Sculpture Hall by Paul Cournet of Rotterdam creative agency Cloud
-
On a sloped Los Angeles site, a cascade of green 'boxes' offers inside outside livingUnStack, a house by FreelandBuck, is a cascading series of bright green volumes, with mountain views
-
Discothèque perfumes evoke the scent of Tokyo in the year 2000As Discothèque gets ready to launch its first perfume collection, Mary Cleary catches up with the brand’s founders
-
For A/W 2024, the working uniform gets a futuristic spinSculpted silhouettes, unexpected textures and plays on classic outerwear meet in the A/W 2024 collections, providing a twisted new take on city dressing
-
The breathtaking runway sets of S/S 2025, from beanbag animals to a twisted living roomWallpaper* picks the best runway sets and show spaces of fashion month, which featured Bottega Veneta’s beanbag menagerie, opulence at Saint Laurent, and artist collaborations at Acne Studios and Burberry
-
Jonathan Lyndon Chase on creating a ‘complicated and messy’ domestic space for Acne Studios’ latest showA musing on ‘emotions and the body, and how they affect the space around you’: American artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase tells Mahoro Seward the story behind their Acne Studios runway set, which will backdrop the brand’s S/S 2025 show in Paris later today
-
Le Sel d’Issey: the sacred ‘energy of salt’ inspires Issey Miyake’s new fragrance for menAs Issey Miyake’s Le Sel d’Issey launched in Tokyo this week, we spoke with Tokujin Yoshioka about his ‘radiant’ bottle design and the scent's sacred and salty inspiration
-
In Tokyo, Gucci drafts local artisans to reimagine the Bamboo 1947 bagGucci’s ‘Then and Now’ exhibition in Tokyo celebrates 60 years of the Italian house’s presence in Japan. Here, local artisans tell Wallpaper* the story behind their contribution
-
‘Expression, sexuality and individualism’: Diesel exhibition is a trip into the homoerotic world of Tom of FinlandIn Tokyo’s Shibuya district, fashion label Diesel hosts an exhibition celebrating queer artist Tom of Finland, including a VR trip to ‘Tom House’ in Los Angeles and a capsule collection adorned with erotic illustrations
-
Kiko Kostadinov’s Tokyo outpost is a fashion store like no otherBulgaria-born designer Kiko Kostadinov tells Wallpaper* why he chose Tokyo to open his first store, which sets to ‘pervert the traditional mould’ and features collaborations with artists such as Ryan Trecartin
