Would you ever guess Acne Studios is 30 years old? The brand's SS27 confirms that age is just a number

Not many people know that the flagship store of Acne Studios, on Norrmalmstorg square in Stockholm, occupies the very commercial space where a hostage-taking gave its name to Stockholm Syndrome. What was a bank during the infamous 1973 heist now houses one of the brand's most important spaces. And even though its founding date is printed on logoed T-shirts and sweatshirts, not everyone knows that Acne Studios has just turned thirty. It's hard to believe, given the stylistic freshness that co-founder and creative director Jonny Johansson continues to bring to the runway season after season, or the pool of very young consumers who love this brand all over the world. Even though some Acne Studios collections are now considered vintage, the brand doesn't age. It's a fashion vampire that, even for this SS27, has bared its fangs.

Titled Denim Hystoria, the collection literally unites denim — always one of the brand's signature items — and history, stitching onto contemporary garments details and tailoring elements drawn from past eras and subcultures. Voluminous balloon skirts fall over skinny jeans and cigarette trousers; pea coats cut to reveal the back; capri trousers in leather or plus-fours, cut even shorter. A diamond pattern covers nearly every knitwear piece in the collection, from tights to turtlenecks, while romantic floral prints have been painted onto denim, hats, and elegant peplum tops tied at the navel.

The waist sits lower, the boots reach higher, and the collection's overall aesthetic is indecipherable, blending references that are far too different from one another: Rococo, '50s biker, the Napoleonic era, Romanticism, '90s avant-garde. This last era is channelled most effectively in the outerwear, such as the waxed leather trench coat — almost as if it had been laminated — in military green and covered in belts in various shades of beige. The same plastic treatment has been applied to some white tank tops with a worn-in look and to coloured denim pieces.

There's a little of everything in this SS27, and that is precisely what makes Acne Studios a young brand that appeals to young people. Obsessed with niche references and outfits that flaunt cultivated interests — looks that can't be replicated simply by shopping online, but only by rummaging through small vintage shops and second-hand markets — the Acne Studios generation loves personalisation: which is why the garments in this collection are often adorned with cameo brooches, and the shoes are old heels with an oversized buckle and a bow. It may not be Stockholm Syndrome, but it's certainly an obsession.