Focus on: Acne

Swedish people are cool: everything about them and everything that comes out of their hands and imagination is out of this this world crazy cool. To demonstrate this, I give you Acne. The label has been founded in Stockholm in 1996 by four creative people who developped Acne’s vision: to conceive and develop a lifestyle brand offering highly coveted products. 

They first started with jeans and soon (in 1998) they launched the first full collection. What Jonny Johansson, Acne’s Creative Director, has to say about their label is actually the essence of the label (and of swedish people by extent): "Fashion is the best form of self-expression. We like to design pieces that together form the coolest wardrobe, but is ultimately wearable. It becomes one way of thinking as individual pieces, but together creates a strong, modern and considered statement."

If you have the time and feel intrigued enough, visit the website and you will find that it carries the same coolness and some very unique presentations of the products. What drives me crazy most about this brand is, of course, THE SHOES.

I have rarely seen this amount of originality and coolness in a shoe. Apart from using different fabrics and cuts, the designers use different techniques and like to deconstruct the regular shape of a shoe, to use items/fabrics that no one would ever think of using in a shoe. The result is a very urban shoe, street style fit, for people that are interested in wearing one of a kind shoes that match their hype personality.

I can't help but start by sharing my favourite shoes of them all the ones that are really unthinkably amazing:

 Daring

Dystopia

Yes, that's right, that's a nail! For both sandals and ankle boots, the designers have used heels made of nails and screws - have you ever seen a cooler stiletto high heel? They would give a lot of personality to any evening gown, dress or even the plain regular jeans, managing to deliver a message/a statement. However, I wouldn't recommend these shoes to shy people.

Pin

Vega Grey

The pumps are also really incredible. Most of them in suede, they feature both stiletto and chunky heels, patent leather inserts and hidden platforms. I fell in love with the Vega Greys the first time I saw them - the colour is perfect and they seem the perfect day shoes.

Next, the wedges:

 Admire

Hybria

Bare

 Fusion

 Highway Pocket

Superior

Brace

With zippers, deconstructed wood wedge, open toe and heel, with attached pockets or lacing, this is the shoe that has proved the most productive for the designers. 

They have also created this season's everyone's favourite: the army boots. With fur to make them more girly , patent leather to make them stylish and corset-like top to make them more sexy, the result is an army boot that even a very girly girl would want to wear without altering her personality. The ones with lacing are unisex, I like their dusty grey colour and the side lacing - very catchy.

 Trooper Fur

 Trooper Metallic

 Chopper

Draw

Raya

The designers have freed their imagination from any preconceived idea of a shoe or anything that has been done in the industry prior to them. They have started from zero, creating their own world with their own rules of what to use or not (for what fabric is concerned) and they have created what seemed niche creations for people with a fashion sense cultivated in this direction. Somehow, in between the fame, the fortune and the coolness, they have become a label aknowledged by critics and loved by the audience.

We can only appreciate them and hope that they have more amazing shoes where these came from.

Note: I am aware that I have used the word "cool" too many times, but I couldn't help it, it's amazing what these swedish people have done.