CITYist

Acne, the Swedish design company known mostly for its denim, started off as anything but. The very first thing founder Jonny Johansson designed was, in fact, not a pair of washed-out Scandinavian jeans but a conference table. In that vein, the company is releasing a four-piece collection of squashed and squished sofas —which, in their use of bleached and hand-dyed indigo upholstery and minimal, futuristic shapes, are not much of a departure from their fashion after all.

Modeled after the designs of 20s, 30s and 40s furniture maker Carl Malmsten, a legendary Swedish designer, the line takes its retro roots and forges them into something new. The collection derives its inspiration and name (Nya Berlin, or New Berlin), from an original Malmsten design used in the Swedish consulate in Berlin that’s been out of production since 1949. Acne updated the sofas by twisting and manipulating the shapes until they resembled something out of Alice in Wonderland—fantastically skewed and architecturally whimsical. What else would you expect from a company that stands for “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions?”