■ About the Publication Magazine B is an ad-free monthly publication that dedicates each issue to one well-balanced brand unearthed from around the globe. The magazine introduces the brand’s hidden stories, as well as its sensibility and culture, and is an easy but also serious read for anyone with an interest in brands. ■ About the Publisher JOH & Company is a creative company founded in April 2011 by Suyong Joh, former Director of Creative Marketing & Design at NHN. He oversaw and directed the construction of NHN Green Factory, which is the headquarters of NHN, the company that has earned domestic and international reputation as “Google of Korea.” He also created a sensation in the publishing world when he compiled the construction process in a publication, Green Factory. Currently, he leads JOH & Company, a group of creative directors that he has brought together from various fields, and he is conducting complex projects encompassing architectural design, brand consultation, interior, food & beverage service, and product design, based on his own experience. The first fruit of such endeavor is magazine B. ■ About the Issue Welcome to the 61st issue of B. As a person who likes fashion, I enjoy staying on top of brand news and projects, as well as industry trends. I majored in fashion, and I also got my start at a fashion magazine, but there’s more to why I pay attention to the fashion industry. In my view, the industry is a barometer of sorts, its trends reliable clues to where broader lifestyle trends are headed. Whatever reputation fashion has, whether for capriciousness nor excessive showmanship, I feel no need to scorn it, or condemn it. The fashion world adapts to shifting terrain with a speed and agility that is rarely seen elsewhere. When changes present themselves in unexpected ways, the industry’s reaction is not to point fingers but rather to embrace such changes, and even transform and repackage them into attractive products. And all of this is done with enviable finesse. Having distinctive energy and readiness to adapt are key qualities major IT and retail players also appreciate, with more and more companies scouting fashion industry creatives for their teams. In this edition, we introduce Acne Studios, a brand that has been at the forefront of change, not just in fashion but in the creative scene as a whole. Cofounder and creative director Jonny Johansson and his three founding partners were hardly typical entrants into the world of fashion. When they launched the label, Johansson was a 20-something from an outlying part of Sweden who dreamed of being a musician. His cofounders, like him, had a passion for design and the arts, and it was in the process of their collective creative experimentation that Acne was born. Their creative outlets had mainly been digital art, lm, graphic design and branding, but on a whim, they decided to design jeans. There wasn’t any special reason, as Johansson himself recalls. The jeans were supposed to be a joke. The pink shopping bag and the brand’s unlikely name, though today Acne’s trademarks and held up as successful examples of intuitive branding, were decidedly unorthodox in the 1990s, when the brand made its debut. Yet two decades later, Acne boasts an ardent following for its unique culture that has formed around the faithfully expressed aesthetic instincts and tastes of its creators. What makes Acne so appealing is different from what draws people to a brand like Maison Margiela, which we introduced in B last spring. Acne is a brand that designs clothing and yet strategically resists making clothing its sole medium for communication. In fact, sometimes its other endeavors get more attention – its flagship stores, as avant-garde as any gallery; its collaborations, not with celebrities or famous influencers but with artists; and Acne Paper, a platform for a wide array of content. Interestingly enough, the brand’s founders don’t deny this. In a past interview, Johansson explained that at Acne, concept is always first, and ideas are the main focus. If what he says is true, we might say that what Acne enthusiasts consume is not so much the products but the atmosphere surrounding them. In 2016 alone, Acne Studios recorded 215 million dollars in revenue, almost twice the figure for the previous year. What’s more, this was achieved without acquisition of the brand by a luxury fashion house. Commercial success was garnered without rules and restrictions, and this was possible due to balance. Acne has mastered walking the line. It has fostered an eclectic, non-mainstream culture while showcasing product lines that satisfy even mainstream tastes. It finds an equally solid footing among high fashion brands as well as more casual contemporary makers. It is a Swedish brand markedly bare of the features that traditionally identify Swedish brands. Its minimalist designs are embellished with subtle maximalist details. And the signature pink of its packaging, once dismissed as helpless romanticism, has become the epitome of cool. This is a feat that perhaps only Acne, with all the things that make it what it is, could have pulled off. I believe that this kind of Acne ethos will become increasingly visible across a range of business sectors. The boundaries that distinguish different types of creative work are dissolving at a rapid pace, and overlaps and ambiguities are no longer things we question or find fault with. We are starting to approach fashion the way we would music, design the way we would cooking and films the way we would print magazines. In our day and age, no other philosophy is more appealing. There is a readiness to blend and blur, and to fell old boundaries, generating vast opportunities for a new age. I would venture that this same sense of possibility is what propelled Acne from a joke to where it is today. Content & Editorial Director Eunsung Park ■ Table of contents 02 Intro 09 Editor’s Letter 12 Outfit of the Day Acne Studios styles on Instagram 16 Opinion Bom Lee, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Dazed & Confused Korea 20 Impression Innovative concepts from Acne Studios 28 Key Items Signature items from Acne Studios 42 Runway Avant-garde hits the runway 48 Opinion Zoe Michel, Producer at Condé Nast 52 Realway People who think and live outside the box 72 Opinion Andreas Fornell, Architect 78 Space Acne Studios’ spaces in cities around the world and the people who created them 90 Acne Culture Acne’s culture outside of fashion 102 Brand Story The birth and growth of Acne Studios 108 Campaign Advertising campaigns with fresh perspectives 112 Collaboration Collaborative works across different genres 116 Collectives Six fashion collectives that work in perfect cooperation 120 Swedish Cool The next-generation brand with a unique Swedish flair and contemporary sensibility 124 Founder Comments from Acne Studios cofounder Jonny Johansson 127 References 129 Outro