Last night Acne went ahead and out-supered Isabel Marant's super-tight, high-waisted jeans with their version featuring a collage of Viviane Sassen's photography, a Jonny Johansson fave and longtime Acne Studios collaborator. Oh, and those figures you're seeing reflected at the back of every shot from the show? They're not ghostly apparitions, sadly, but regular folk gathered outside the Pompidou to watch the proceedings - alas, from the other side of the glass. The live concert to keep them entertained and interested was a nice touch but perhaps the doors could have been slid open. That would have been a breath of fresh air.
'I had this idea of reducing volume', Johansson said in his notes, and he went about doing that by pulling in the waist, shoulders and sleeves of an oversized coat with rope. It was an interesting Dr Frankensteinian touch although the thick rope didn't help in lightening up the heaviness some of those blanket wool pieces exuded. The specially woven speckled material looked easier when patchworked with powder blue shearling for a toggled-up sleeveless coat or on cropped jackets. The leather pieces however, were butter soft and instantly desirable like a black jacket with raffia pockets and big sleeves, also shown in clay red, or a wraparound skirt with asymmetrical layers. Actually, that earlier Marant comparison isn't that far off - both brands have an instinctive knack for what's effortlessly cool and what both those seating inside and those standing outside want - something more rare than you might think. The difference is that Marant wholeheartedly embraces that whereas Acne eschews it. They shouldn't.
