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PARIS, France — Kudos to Acne Studios for cleverly merging the academic and the fashionable skipping boredom and pretense at once. Today's presentation took place in the amphitheatre of the Faculté de Pharmacie. As professor George Papazoff lengthily discussed the evolution of the portrait from primitive art to the advent of the selfie, models strode over his long desk, turned into a makeshift runaway. There was no apparent relation betwen the content of the lecture and the collection's theme, but hearing Papazoff's insightful words created an engaging environment around the clothes, amplifying their power and precision.
This was one of Acne's best menswear collections so far: it looked grounded, with a twist; it had calm and poise but kept a certain boldness; it was made of desirable clothes — sturdy coats, shapely jackets, high-waisted trousers — not mere ideas of clothes. Johnny Johanson was after an investigation of traditional business attire — one of Paris' main preoccupations this season — and succeeded in giving tailoring a younger edge without the forays into the "strange" that sometime make his messages foggy instead of clear. This Acne Studios show was crystal clear.
