acne paper: brand extensions that are not advertising.

Style Salvage recently posted a great write up on Acne, maker of beloved jeans and now Lanvin collaborator. It’s definitely worth a read, if only for the section on Acne Paper at the bottom.
Acne Paper is, in my limited experience, totally amazing. It manages to teach you something about the ideas behind the brand, offer great (and non-commercial) fashion shoots, potential inspirations, etc. the best thing about it is what it isn’t.

It’s a branded product that doesn’t turn itself into a mass of advertising for the brand.

Acne Paper doesn’t really try to sell you Acne. Instead to offers you a glimpse into the background of Acne as a brand, the inspiration, ideas, and creative culture that makes it work. It’s a brand extension that isn’t advertising.

This is a different beast than brand extensions for a creative product, which are themselves creative products. This is a creative extension for a commodity product. And they did it without making the entire thing a glorified catalogue.

I have no doubt this was done for the love, not for a potential increase in market share. But these kind of actions lead to people seeing Acne as a signifier they want attached to themselves.