FRAME MAGAZINE

ACNE’S KOREAN FLAGSHIP HOVERS WEIGHTLESSLY AMID AN ASSEMBLY OF CONCRETE AND STEEL

By Shonquis Moreno. Photographs by Annabel Elston. March 2016

Designer Sophie Hicks’ flagship for Stockholm-based fashion brand Acne Studios in Seoul’s Gangnam district sits – gossamer and luminous – in a bed of wild strawberries, crowned with ductwork and lined with concrete. This industrial-ethereal contradiction reflects the area’s identity, as well as the contrast between Acne’s vocal aesthetic (the name of the label could refer to blemishes but is actually a cheeky acronym for the collective’s primary pursuit: Ambition to Create Novel Expressions) and the more retiring aspects of Swedish culture. ‘Sweden is a culture of light and air,’ Hicks writes, one that values ‘modesty and discretion’.

Inside, two floors of concrete poured in rough timber forms float amid – without touching – exterior polycarbonate walls through which daylight difuses onto freestanding steel garment displays. There is no decoration of any sort and no mechanical equipment, the ductwork that might have threaded the interior having been coiled atop the roof. The consonance of a handful of diverse materials – woodgrain-tattooed concrete surfaces and spiral stair, metal cash counter and displays, and glowing polycarbonate walls – vaporizes into an atmosphere of cool warmth. Hicks, with good reason, calls it ‘otherworldly’. — Shonquis Moreno

MAGAZINES

YAMAMOTO & YOHJI, RIZZOLI

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK
Contribution by Sophie Hicks
Photographs by Milo Keller and Johannes Marburg
November 2014

NR

SOPHIE HICKS DISCUSSES THE FASHION INDUSTRY AND HER CAREER IN ARCHITECTURE.
by Izzy Bilkus. Photographs by Adrian Gaut, Johannes Marburg, James Drew Turner and Annabel Elston.
Winter 2021

DETAIL

CENTRAL AND SECLUDED: SOPHIE HICK’S PRIZE-WINNING PRIVATE RESIDENCE
by Edina Obermoser
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Sophie Hicks Architects
January 2020

FRAME

YOHJI YAMAMOTO FLAGSHIP STORE
By Chris Scott
Photographs by Johannes Marburg
May/Jun 2009

IGNANT

ACNE STUDIOS · SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
by Stephanie Wade
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Fabio Ongarato
October 2019

NUMERO

SOPHIE HICKS, LA SCIENCE DES VOLUMES
By Clara Le Fort
Photo by Johannes Marburg
September 2016