Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
PARIS, France — Multiculturalism is always a difficult topic in fashion. The danger of folk or ethnic — two rather abused style clichés — is a common tap that lies right around the corner, and with that an abundance and redundancy of decoration. It takes focus and a vigorous editing to succeed at this game: the ability to subtract references instead of adding them.
managed to do this today. The
collection was an ode to borderless-ness expressed through roomy, airy pieces that kept a distinctive folk vibe to them — fringes, intricate patterns, a smattering of sequins, kimono shapes — without their points of inspiration being immediately identifiable, or literal. Ethnic, for Johansson, was more an excuse to explore an ancestral idea of dress that coincides with cloth: there were as few cuts and darts as possible, and dresses merging with stoles. Acne certainly owns oversize: they were there before anybody else. And today, the easy, breezy lightness of it was particularly refreshing and a welcome step forward.
