Acne Studios x Maria Pasenau - Bright Colors for Dark Days

office sat down with Sebastian and Dylan ahead of this season's release to learn more about what went into launching Entire Studios, and dive into their unique design process.

Are you guys both from New Zealand?

Sebastian – Yeah.

What city?

Dylan – Auckland.

Sebastian – I'm from Wellington. 

I feel like New Zealand and LA are so far apart in so many ways. I'm curious if both places have an influence on Entire Studios?

Sebastian – I wouldn’t say there was really an influence, it was more of a motivation to leave that side of the world. I feel like there's not really an equipped fashion industry, nor is there a commercial market for a brand that we wanted to start and so we left New Zealand when we were 22 and kind of never looked back. I wouldn't say there's a huge connect to where we're from essentially. We did start the brand when we were back in New Zealand during that COVID period, but there was such a pull and an influx of celebrities and press, and the customer was all offshore – especially in America – so it was like there's no way we would be able to maintain a brand in New Zealand. And I think that's just the struggle of a country that's so far away and not set up to be global.

Dylan – I definitely think New Zealand and LA have played a massive part in our journey to building myself and Sebastian to be who we are today, but I don't think either of the places actually play too much influence on where we lead the brand in terms of direction and our goals for the brand.

Sebastian – We don't really want people to be like, “Oh, it's a New Zealand brand in LA.” We kind of like to look at our brand as global and LA just happens to be our home.

Was it hard to move to LA and break into the industry? Did people take you seriously? What was that introduction like?

Sebastian – No, we moved to LA because we had got offered jobs and so we were able to fall into the industry quite fast. And our first friends were all from where we were working, and it was easy for us to kind of get in a circle and grow from there. LA, I feel like, is really a very isolating place if you come and you don't know anyone and you don't know anywhere. But I feel like from the jump, me and Dylan we're able to make friends quickly and have a good circle.

Dylan – LA wasn't in the playing cards for us really when we were back home in New Zealand, but it's just how it all kind of panned out. And then we're both spending so much time out here in LA, it kind of just felt like our second home basically. So we were like, ‘Okay, cool. We'll go back home through Covid, start the brand back home, and then eventually move back out to LA,’ because it kind of had become our home and we had built our friends and relationships and stuff out here. And I believe running a brand now with the reach of social media and all that, you can basically be placed anywhere. LA is so massive that it allows us kind of the peace and space that we need when we need to just be quiet and put our heads down and work and focus. 

Sebastian – The one thing I like about LA as well is that it's slowly becoming more of a fashion city, but I feel like it's not, and then the people that are surrounding us are not necessarily in the fashion industry. So there is that ‘on and off' that we can use.

Dylan – Again, we built up our resumes from afar in New Zealand, so being in LA and being so far from Europe kind of feels just the same as what we were kind of doing. And I'm used to being away from all that noise. I think that has played a part in helping us with Entire, it kind of pushed us to be able to focus without getting distracted. I agree with Sebastian. I think LA isn't technically the biggest fashion city, so it gives us a room to just do what we need to do.

Sebastian – It's like there's a fashion industry right, me and Dylan both love fashion, but we're not necessarily trying to be involved in the industry. And I feel like it's a little different as young designers when you're in New York and everyone's kind of competing or trying to show out and show up, whereas I feel like me and Dylan have always minded our own, and I think LA is a really good place to do that.

What was it that gave you guys the confidence to go out on your own? I know you guys were working for another designer, and then what was it? Was there a turning point where it's like ‘we're just going to solely focus on our own thing’?

Dylan – Me and Sebastian, when we started the styling and all that kind of stuff back home in New Zealand, it was always an end goal to have our brand, but we didn't really know what steps we needed to do to get to that stage. But getting offered our previous job with Kanye, it just tested our skill sets and pushed us outside our comfort zones and boundaries to a point where eventually, after so long of working in a brand, we were kind of like, ‘Okay, we feel confident now that we've learned the knowledge and skillset to let us spread our wings and go do that on our own.’

Sebastian – We've always been on our own terms, I guess. We didn't come from education, we didn't go to university or college, whatever, and it was all about us figuring the steps along the way. And I feel like we were both very strategic because, one, it was the motivation to get out of New Zealand, but it wasn't just that. It was then the motivation to have the best skillset whether we were working for someone else, whether we were starting something else. And I just feel like together we both had the same goal and we both were good at figuring out how to get to where we wanted to be.

I'm curious about your journeys of going from stylists to designers. It's funny because I went the other way; I studied design and now I'm styling. So I’m kind of curious what that transition was like and how it happened.

Dylan – It felt very natural to be honest because we were styling, but we always wanted to give it that full head to toe finish with a touch of controlling the narrative of what we're creating. And obviously with styling, there's boundaries and restrictions that you run into because you're like, ‘I wish this was a little longer. I wish this was a little shorter. I wish this wasn't that color.’ And with Entire, the name kind of says it all, it's not just the apparel side that we're trying to work on. We're trying to go deeper.

Sebastian – When we were styling, it was like, we're given these pieces to use and we can style a good look but I feel like there was always a feeling of we could do it better if we could adjust these things or make them better, and not just within the tailoring side of it. And so, the way it works at Entire is we're just building off our previous jobs. The way things are designed here is that Dylan does the creative directing. So all the looks are presented to our design team as full, styled looks already, and we kind of work backwards. So it's like, ‘Yeah, this jacket is kind of made with these pants and this is meant to be the whole vibe.’ And it's then up to our team to then break it down and then break it back up to a final product.

Dylan – But we're bigger picture people. So basically, styling, it wasn't enough. I wanted to get in there more and get it closer to the final vision. So that was what pushed us. But with our previous job too, the experiences of learning the ropes and understanding how things work, and also just being around so many inspiring people in that team, it felt natural to just progress in that direction. And now here we are, we are styling, but with our full vision now.

Sebastian – And then there's no opinions besides mine and Dylan's. We're not getting the opinions of a client or anything.

Dylan – That was the part that I found quite hard with styling. You’re styling people and you are having to work around their vision and what they're comfortable with, which I think was great learning for us starting our brand. It's made us have a way deeper understanding of what people need and want and stuff. But at the end of the day, creatively, we get to just follow our gut 150% and stick to it without having to alter our creative vision to fully cater to other people.

I'm really curious about this design process you have of styling an outfit, then going back, and then somehow that becomes a design. I'm trying to envision how that works.

Dylan – So I guess everyone's process is different, but like I said, we are bigger picture people. I already see the range, kind of how I want it. I'm like, ‘I want this kind of jacket with this kind of skirt’ or whatever. So the process is, we do online research and gather all that information. Now we have so many samples in our studio and vintage references and we'll go out thrifting and stuff, and then we'll just start styling up outfits. So again, we're utilizing that old skillset that we had. And then we'll build a base, basically, and then we'll present to our team and explain this is the kind of direction and final vision that we want to do. And then from there it gets broken down. They get quite a visual presentation of what the final range should look like, but then we break down all the pieces that we want and we put more references around it and more information around it. And then from there, they take all that information and they start the sketching process. 

Sebastian – We also like to bring in other talent, other stylists that we know from previous jobs and stuff and we like to see the way they interpret Entire. I think everything is kind of all pulling from this visual interpretation being broken down. That's when we hand it to our team.

Dylan – I've been told that I work quite backwards, but I'm very visual, so I need to create something visual for the team to really get it. A lot of people, they'll start with fabrics that they want to build the range with, but I don't like doing that. I go in knowing I want some fur or something special. But as we see the pieces and stuff, then we start filling in the blanks, like, ‘This should be a special fabric.’ I feel like it's like if you were to find a paint and be like, ‘I'm going to build my house with this paint.’ I'd rather build the structure and then start filling in those colors and fabrics after that stage. But apparently that's not a way that many people work.

No, it's definitely interesting. You spoke about “Entire” and that you're involved in every aspect. Both your LA showroom and the space you used in Paris to show were quite incredible Brutalist spaces with art installations. What’s the importance and significance of space to you guys and why do you place so much emphasis on it?

Dylan – It's something that's so important to Sebastian and I. We really care about the spaces. Again, it's that full vision. Entire is like we're trying to create a way of life. It goes so much deeper than just wardrobe, but me and Sebastian have always been into furniture and all that kind of stuff.

Sebastian – Essentially ‘entire’ in Oxford the dictionary means, “With no part left out.” And so that's kind of what the name of the brand is based on. It's about the entire look and that can even be broken further. It's like, ‘What does that smell like? What does that look like in a setting?’ It has given us a leeway of what we want to do, and it's kind of filled this entire

world. 

Dylan – It just plays into that our passion goes outside of just clothing. As a kid growing up, I wanted to be an architect, so spaces were always my thing. But I didn't feel like I was actually smart enough to do that because I hate numbers. So I stayed away from that, went to the clothing stuff and it just feels natural. But also, spaces, it just plays into where your head's at. I need to be in a good space to be able to create, and I think it's major to create a space that our team also loves to be in. And you get a different kind of work when you care for your space. You know what I mean? And it just also is such a major part of Entire. I want people to know when you think of Entire, you what know our spaces look like.

I love that definition of “no parts left out.” I feel like – not just in fashion – even my favorite musicians create this whole world, and it's not just the one element. They're really creating something where you can feel like you're a part of something that's not so linear. I was reading that you guys just started with a singular puffer jacket and now each collection's growing and growing. What elements are important to you guys to make sure it still feels cohesive even though the expansion of product is so rapid?

Sebastian – I think one important thing with developing our collections is that there's not necessarily one entire customer, which we like. I feel like with all our categories that we've now built, we're seeing a huge range of types of people that are wearing Entire. We only started with one puffer jacket for financial reasons, and we wanted to start with something that really set a tone of who we were. And that was an unbranded, very clear silhouette that no one was really doing at the time. Because that's kind of all we were able to do. It just got such a huge response and everyone was like, “What are these big fucking puffer jackets that everyone's wearing right now?” I mean, the way we've built it up is… For financial reasons, we couldn't do the most, but we're now in a place that we can branch into categories and be able to develop them the entire way.

Dylan – When we were starting the brand and we didn't have much knowledge on how much it cost to run a brand, we already had a mini range. Basically our second drop or third drop was what our first drop was meant to look like. But me and Sebastian at the time, we were always wearing our puffer jackets. It just felt like the most natural piece to start where we can play into the silhouette because silhouette is one of the most important things at Entire. We don't really slap our logo and branding over stuff, but we get told that a lot of people recognize our garments, even how pulled back they are because of our silhouette choices. So we knew that with me and Sebastian loving our puffer jackets at that time, with our styling history, it was always outerwear that could really elevate a look and take it somewhere really special. So it just felt like, ‘Okay, let's X out everything. We'll just start with the one puffer jacket. We get to show silhouette. It's something that organically we feel connected to right now in this moment’, and that's how we did it. But yeah, I feel like with all the expansions, the one thing that we are keeping in mind is our audience and how we can create this entire wardrobe for people. And you can have your stuff that you're wearing at home chilling, but then you can go out during the evening…

Sebastian – Or a wedding.

Dylan – Yeah, we're just trying to develop the perfect wardrobe basically.