Interview

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There is a conspiracy theory that Sweden is quietly taking over the world. If that's true, Jonny Johansson and his fanatically popular fashion brand, ACNE, will certainly be in the power seats. Johansson and three colleagues started the creative collective-and future lifestyle label-in Stockholm in 1996 with the dream of dipping their hands into every possible pocket of art and culture (the name is an acronym for Ambition to Create Novel Expressions). After they unleashed 100 pairs of unisex jeans on friends, family, and clients one year later, the ACNE denim rush was on. Jeans might have been the gateway drug, but soon the brand was supplying a young global fan base with everything from radically elegant casual sportswear to stuffed animals. They even have their own biannual magazine. This year, ACNE teamed up with another cultishly popular label, Lanvin, for a collaboration on couture-like pieces executed in blue denim for both guys and girls. Like most things ACNE, the partnership between creative director Johansson and Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz happened almost by accident, while talking casually at dinner. Here, 39-year-old Johansson talks just as casually about what inspires him, why his office manager is building sculptures in the corner, and how nothing's better than a perfect vintage guitar.

PAIGE POWELL: You've really become something of an impresario, with your film company, jeans, men's and women's lines, even children's toys. Now I hear you will be doing furniture.

JONNY JOHANSSON: We are. For me it was about experimenting, about seeing if there was anything in furniture design that was connected to our work in fashion. Furniture design in the 1920s and '30s in Sweden has always interested me. Abroad they called the style "Swedish gray," but the genre was really neoclassicism. It was around the time when modernism and the Bauhaus were getting stronger. But this neoclassicism was actually doing modern things too, as well as looking back at history. That's a little bit of what ACNE is doing today. We do -respect history and we try to do something modern and new. We aren't like the Bauhaus, saying, "No, I don't like what history is giving." I'm generalizing of course. But when people ask me about being Swedish, or if there is something I feel connected to, neoclassicism is the thing I bring up.

PP: Do you play any instruments?

JJ: I play guitar.

PP: Are you in a band?

JJ: I was in several bands during my younger, student years. It was all about being in a band. I was more focused on the self-expression part than my musical output-what I was wearing, how the poster was looking, or how the stage was set up, things like that.

PP: What were the bands that you played in called?

JJ: I had so many. I had one that was called Violet.

PP: Did you play bass?

JJ: No. Initially I wanted to stand in the front, so I was playing guitar or singing or both.

PP: Are there any artists that you feel influenced by?

JJ: When we started, we liked the whole Andy Warhol liberation of art and commerciality. That was liberating for me, finding a path I wanted to go down. We used the Factory quite frequently as a reference in 1996 when we started, and I bought a lot of old Interview magazines. I still have a nice collection. So that was one reference. I like Keith Haring. I recently saw a documentary on him, and I was reminded of how nice he was as a person.

PP: Did you meet him?

JJ: Never. I went to his store, Pop Shop, on Lafayette Street in New York when they had a show of his, but I was too young to dare to . . . I've never been a person who seeks out my idols. I think I'm an idol myself.

PP: Do you have a social life?

JJ: [laughs] To be honest, my social life is my work. It's quite boring to say, but I meet a lot of people, and we have people from different creative disciplines. I enjoy life right now, and I enjoy work.

PP: That's what Andy always said. Work should be fun, and fun should be work. Do you drive a car?

JJ: Yes.

PP: Do you have a Volvo?

JJ: No. [laughs]

PP: I have a Volvo, a 1996 wagon with a turbo engine. Most of the people in my family have Volvos.

JJ: Well, keep it up! You're saving the country. I drive a Mini, to be honest. It's like driving a go-kart. Mine is in British Racing Green Metallic, but it's a convertible with white rims. They're so easy to park, and it doesn't use much petrol, either.