Acne Studios Remakes Hussein Chalayan's Archive in Denim, From $410 Tanks to a $3,200 Patchwork Bag

Acne Studios has a collaboration with Hussein Chalayan, and it went on sale on October 14. The Acne Studios Hussein Chalayan collection is 12 pieces on acnestudios.com, mostly denim, which Acne calls an ode to 30 years of its denim heritage, anchored in Chalayan's conceptual approach and his ideas of transformation, regeneration and experimental construction.

Acne's own Instagram post calls it a limited-edition collection that reinterprets Chalayan's design hallmarks in Acne's foundational materials, drawing on a handful of his seminal collections. Hypebeast names them as Spring/Summer 2001 "Ventriloquy", Spring/Summer 2002 "Medea" and Spring/Summer 2003 "Manifest Destiny".

The pieces and prices

The denim is cut up and patched back together. The Patchwork Jeans - 2009F and the Asymmetrical Denim Vest are $1,100 each, the Patchwork Denim Shirt and the Asymmetrical Denim Mini Dress $1,400 each, and the Twisted Python Print Jeans $1,000. Around them sit a Layered Cotton Mini Dress at $750, an Asymmetrical Tank Top at $410 and a Logo T-Shirt at $470.

Acne Studios

The most expensive piece is a bag. Acne's signature Camero handbag comes back as the Patchwork Camero Camera Bag, in what the page calls trompe l'oeil patchworked denim leather, for $3,200.

Acne photographed the clothes at London's V&A East Storehouse, where, as its page puts it, select garments from Chalayan's archive are kept in the museum's permanent collection. Hypebeast says the collection is sold online and at select Acne Studios stores, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, Stockholm, London, New York and Los Angeles.

The book

Alongside the clothes, Acne has published Reference: Hussein Chalayan, a limited-edition book editorially directed by the curator and editor Charlene Prempeh. Acne says it gathers archival illustrations, photographs and texts from contributors across disciplines as a tribute to Chalayan's influence on fashion and design. Hypebeast puts the run at 1,000 copies. Neither Acne nor Hypebeast gives its price.

Acne Studios

The read

Chalayan has always been easier to admire than to buy. His ideas mostly reached people as runway concepts, and some of the clothes themselves now sit in a museum. Acne turns those ideas into jeans, shirts and a bag in the material it calls foundational, and uses the V&A store room as the backdrop, so part of what the price buys is the provenance.

It also suits Acne's year. Its own site runs a "30 Years of Acne Studios" section next to the capsule, and putting a designer this respected on the label's founding fabric says Acne wants its denim read as design history, not just a good pair of jeans. What it hasn't said is how many of each piece it made.