Do you remember your first? 6 tastemakers on their very first pair of Acne Studios jeans

What started with 100 pairs of jeans has grown into one of Sweden’s most influential fashion brands. When Acne Studios launched 25 years ago, it did so by sending out its dark wash denim with contrasting red thread to a select group of tastemakers, a savvy move to expose the brand’s signature style to Sweden’s sartorial authority.

Model Caroline Winberg was one of the lucky recipients of those first 100 pairs, saying, “I think they were probably the first thing I ever got gifted in my life.” On the other hand, model Erika Wall discovered Acne Studios in the sartorially savvy Stockholm shop Jus where she picked up her first pair. “I wore them every day for years, and I had never heard of Acne before,” she says. Finally, our eminent editor-in-chief, Martina Bonnier, reminisces about the brand’s first head office, saying, “I was always a little bit scared because they were so cool.”

Watch the exclusive video below to hear first-person accounts of how Sweden’s most prominent fashion house started.