THE LANGUAGE OF FASHION: The seventh issue of the biannual Acne Paper, which will launch tonight with a party at the New York Public Library, has a few unlikely interview subjects, though none more so than Noam Chomsky. The MIT linguist agreed to speak to correspondent Karin Strom about the nature of trends in language after receiving an interview request from editor in chief Thomas Persson, who sent along back copies of the magazine, which included an interview with philosopher Ken Wilber. “It was interesting to speak to Chomsky about language because it is something we use everyday, a subject of great tradition, but also of constant change — not unlike fashion, if you think about it,” explained Persson.
The magazine’s fall-winter issue, which features a fashion layout with Guinevere Van Seenus shot by Daniel Jackson as well as an interview with and photo essay by Nan Goldin, focuses on “tradition,” emphasizing established — though not entirely obvious — players in design, photography, politics, art and sport (the latter subject highlighted by an interview with 1972 Olympic gold medal gymnast Olga Korbut). While Persson, whose Sweden-based company has grown to include film, digital and advertising departments, said the magazine isn’t intended to “promote the Acne clothes, but rather to reflect the creative culture that is Acne,” and the fashion pages include plenty of Acne credits, from a mesh top to a black knit hat (Dries Van Noten, Junya Watanabe and Jonathan Saunders also make appearances). Rounding out the cast of subjects in the issue, which has a print run of 25,000 and will be available in bookstores, galleries and museums, are Fashion Institute of Technology fashion historian Valerie Steele; Rupert Thomas, editor in chief of The World of Interiors, and Robert Watson, whose official title is Head of the Guild of Professional English Butlers.
— Sarah Haight