For those living along the sharper edge of the fashion hemisphere, Acne Studios is a label synonym of understated allure and neo-classical aesthetic.

In the past few years the Swedish wunderkind house has ventured out to bolt a string of creative collaborations involving the likes of Bianci Bicycle and Lanvin in 2008. The jewelers Mikael Zobel and Husam El-Odeh or the video artist Katerina Jebb for Swarovski. Other creative stunts include the launch of the Acne furniture line of sofas based on Swedish interior designer Carl Malmsten’s sofa Nya Berlin and even a cross-gender collection of apparel with transsexual magazine Candy. Yet the recent collaboration with London based artist Daniel Silver really sends our self indulgence radar on over drive.

written by Joyce Bidouzo-Coudray

Daniel Silver is a sculptor known for his ability to mix a wide range of cultural and historical references in his work. Having initially grown up in Israel as the son of Eastern Europeans parents who later immigrated to South Africa and Zimbabwe, he became exposed to many contrasting cultural environments which gradually nurtured his artistic sensibility, ultimately infusing a unique world citizenship value to a body of work that reflects his multicultural inheritance both in a poetical and critical way.

Although this marks his first collaboration with a fashion house, Silver takes a very personal position by establishing an artistic “mise en scène” that integrates the very psyche of African sculpture into a post-colonial cognition whilst repetitively processing it with his own narrative.

The result is a capsule collection of ultra sharp edged statement pieces that will not only challenge most pre-conceptive ideas regarding so called western style aesthetic but that stands out for its refreshing, organic and idiosyncratic appeal. Truly worthy of the ‘collectors items’ status.

Acne Studios founding wizard, Jonny Johansson states: “What I am fascinated with Daniel, is the similarity of how we work, we both like to explore what is contemporary. It’s not a modernist thing but more of a neo-classical style with a re-interpretation of classical forms in a contemporary manner. The collaboration stemmed from a shoot we did in Daniel’s studio in London, I loved his usage of texture and color – Daniel has a great sensibility for art. So for this capsule collection we used a lot of Daniel’s colors and art works. Fabrics are slightly raw and tribal in style, Daniel has a strong relationship with Africa and so we embraced this in the collection, there is painted leather, a lot of print and a lot of naive texture.“

The Acne X Daniel Silver Capsule Collection launched last October at the London flagship and is currently available at Acne stores worldwide and online at acnestudios.com.

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ACNE Studios
Daniel Silver

Korean Model: So Young
Photo credits: Acne Studios