Acne x All_Blues: Inspirations Behind the Collaboration

Acne Studios have teamed up with their Stockholm neighbours, emerging jewellery brand All_Blues, to create a capsule jewellery collection for S/S15. Previewed at the Acne Studios menswear presentation in Paris, the simple and understated pieces were inspired by architecture and designed to enhance the clothes. Two existing All_Blues shapes, crafted from recycled silver, were reworked in high polished 18 carat gold and an oxidised black finish that wears off over time revealing the silver beneath. Here, Another talks to designer duo Fredrik Nathorst and Jacob Skragge about their inspirations and the story behind the partnership.

How did the Acne x All_Blues collaboration come about?
It came out of nowhere – we were working a Friday afternoon and got a call from Jonny Johansson’s assistant to come by the Acne office for a meeting. Later Jonny told us he had bought a couple of our bangles at a store in Stockholm, so when he wanted to do jewellery, he thought of us.

As a duo yourselves, collaboration has been integral in founding the All_Blues jewellery studio, what does collaboration offer you?
For us it is mostly about evolving, both as individuals and as a brand.

It is obvious that clean, modern design is important to the All_Blues aesthetic, who are your design influences and what is it about them that interests you?
We look at architects and furniture designers such as Pierre Jeanneret, Carlo Scarpa, Shiro Kuramata and Christian Halleröd, and book design from Lars Müller and Henrik Nygren. We also admire The Gentlewoman, Phoebe Philo and collectors Christian and Karen Boros, who have the best taste of anyone we’ve ever come across. They live in a penthouse atop a former Nazi air raid shelter erected in 1942 in central Berlin. Today it also functions as an exhibition space for the couple’s private art collection.

Jewellery is often bought with the intention that the owner would wear the object daily and keep it for a lifetime. How does this sense of longevity and intimacy influence your design process?
It definitely slows it down. We often make loads of designs, then let them rest for long periods of time before we evaluate. That way a lot of them don’t make the cut, but I think that’s the reason why a lot of people wear our jewellery for a long time. It enables us to pay great attention to the smallest of details in shapes, balance and finish.

A piece of jewellery can become a personal record of someone’s life and accordingly contains so much emotion, how does it make you feel when you see someone wearing your jewellery?
I once saw a guy sitting in front of me on the bus, he had his arm around his girlfriend and I saw this silver popping from the lights – and I was like “what the…” it was super amazing. It’s a weird feeling and I hope we never get used to it.

Words by Ellie Hay