In the last few years the collaborations between fashion houses, corps de ballets and choreographers has strengthened: apart from fashion designers coming up with costumes for ballet shows, we have seen more recent experiments that involved choreographers working with brands to develop innovative fashion presentations that focused not just on the clothes but on body dynamics (remember British choreographer Wayne McGregor collaborating with Cos or the New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer and soloist Justin Peck working with Opening Ceremony?).
Yet, when a young choreographer approached Acne Studios' Creative Director Jonny Johansson after a dance production at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, and asked him to collaborate, the designer simply refused the offer as he felt he didn't know much about costumes and choreographies.
While things didn't change after doing some researches, Johansson got the dance bug and decided to use it as inspiration for Acne's S/S 19 womenswear collection.
Showcased in Paris at the Camille Sée High School, the collection chronicled the life of a dancer and it was divided into four acts.
Movement ran through the fluid designs, but it also became a theme of Acne Studios Instagram account since, while the fashion show took place, Alice Renavand, principal dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet, took over it.
The first act was devoted to training and opened with romantic separates (that evoked in their colour and consistencies the delicate tutu donned by Dégas's "La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans"), jersey dresses and light slipdresses with bodysuits underneath for that layered look favoured by dancers.
Fitted pants and ribbed leggings that at times looked like legwarmers gave models an elongated silhouette and were at times matched with leotards and with sneaker-cum-sandal-cum-ballet slipper shoes.
The second act revolved around the performance and included designs in natural fabrics with a workwear twist as well: linen jumpsuits and ample shirts were decorated with crocheted trims, references to folkloric detailing, and integrated patches in punk style showing photographs of dancers or posters of performances by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (including the collaboration between Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg and posters from 1973 and 1991).
The latter, together with Ballets Russes posters, were also replicated on functional bags (Johansson actually obtained the rights to use these images, so this is a completely legal collaboration).
Then followed an interlude with more practical clothes layered, the sort of styles dancers may opt for when off-duty or while they are going home.
The palette comprised soft shades, nude tones, earthy browns and rusty oranges, smokey pastels with splashes of pale green, coral and turquoise, but the final act became more grand and veered towards opera rather than dance.
Toile de Jouy prints showing the Palais Garnier and old opera houses, and jacquard fabrics - used for coats, suits, dresses and knitted tops showing raised curtains - introduced indeed an architectural theme. The last garments - brocade suits with swan prints and a black suit decorated along the lapels with bejwelled swans - evoked the eternal dichotomy between Odette and Odile.
There was a faux pas in this collection as Johansson stopped at the most obvious references, from the Ballets Russes to Merce Cunningham and the New York City Ballet, so a lot of other themes, experimental artists and performers were left unexplored (surely there is more to a dancer than stereotypical layered looks...).
Yet the designer managed to come up with strong and commercial pieces such as the garments and accessories with posters (check out also the shirt with the retro print of the New York City Ballet) that may prove visually alluring also for graphic design fans (the 1991 Merce Cunningham dance Company poster was designed by acclaimed Swiss graphic designer Rosmarie Tissi), while offering design alternative to dance fans on the lookout for more refined garments to pay homage to their dance idols. Apart from that there's a bonus about most pieces from this collection: you don't need indeed the body of dancer to wear them.
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