Acne Studios Spring 2023 Ad Campaign Review

Review of Acne Studios Spring 2023 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Jonny Johansson and Photographer Carlijn Jacobs with model Devon Aoki

Acne Studios enlists Devon Aoki and photographer Carlijn Jacobs to put a sharp-edged spin on the classic supermodel editorial for its Spring 2023 campaign.

While she may have been one of the defining faces of the 90s and is rarely in the spotlight these days, Aoki apparently hasn’t aged a day, and gets right back into the role of supermodel starlet without missing a beat. Creative director Jonny Johansson’s Spring 2023 collection explores classically, almost saccharinely feminine and romantic material motifs but subverts them with details like punk spikes or frayed edges, and the actor and model slips effortlessly into this role of simultaneous delicateness and danger.

I love the energy behind Acne Studios. The pieces are beautifully made, very flattering on but feel sui generis like sculpted pieces of art
floating down the runway. Feminine and strong and you feel a touch of the experimental. This
collection goes beyond clothing’s physical constraints: delicate but with an element of danger.”
– Devon Aoki

Jacobs’ portraits keep things simple to let the conversation between the collection’s material interplay and Aoki’s supermodel poise play out in full, with a few set design moments like a pink silk bedspread pushing the semi-ironic aura of feminine mystique.

At first glance, the dolled-up and delicate campaign isn’t what we typically expect from Acne Studios, which tends in its communications to favor the organic, the raw, the weird, the eclectic. But this practice of eclecticism means the brand is poised to incorporate disparate aesthetics into its own world, while the subtle edge that peeks through the prim cracks further confirm that this is not quite the supermodel campaign we thought it was: this is something distinctly Acne Studios.