These Shiny Pink Sheets Are Living in My Head Rent-Free

There are very few fashion shoots that seep into my subconscious, but Devon Aoki for Acne Studios SS23 is a campaign that still has me wanting so much more than the clothes. In one of the shots, she poses on a bed covered in ruffled pink satin sheets—captured mid-fall in some shots, Devon looks as though she’s floating. The scene further explores the concept of being “delicate with a sense of danger,” serving as an extension of the brand’s SS23 show at Paris Fashion Week. (I still envy everyone who got to experience the affair in real life on the runway, like Orion Carloto.)

Acne Studios originally created this dreamscape inside Palais de Tokyo in celebration of their 10th anniversary with classic, kitschy wedding archetypes serving as inspiration for the surreal set which featured a pink carpeted floor with mattresses draped in pink satin sheets and pillows, and shell-covered candelabras by Sylvie Macmillan. At the show, Acne Studios founder and creative director Jonny Johansson presented his own “warped take on the notion of love” with a collection that embraced unexpected twists on traditional ideals of romance.

Ever since then, I’ve been dreaming about dressing my bed in shiny pink sheets. This desire only intensified when Lily Allen and David Harbour revealed a similar vision in their windowless bedroom chamber for the March 2022 cover of AD. Then a few months ago, I was reminded of the fantasy once more during Gustaf Westman’s pop-up event in Los Angeles, where a table turned bed was draped in pink sheets. Tekla recently introduced sateen bedding to their line, one of the three shades offered is Blushing Pink. According to Charlie Hedin, founder and creative director of Tekla, sateen is an ideal material because of how deeply it absorbs colors to produce rich, saturated tones. “To highlight the lustrous nature of the material, we decided to explore mainly softer muted colors while staying within a classic palette to reflect the timeless nature of sateen,” he writes in an email.

Hedin highlights how color is a “deeply personal” choice that has the “ability to change a space’s impression,” a reaction that Tekla continues to be fascinated by amongst customers. The growing demand for pink products in particular has made it a signature color for Tekla across all categories. “It has become a defining element of our brand, offering a fresh, contemporary approach to design,” he adds. “Pink’s versatility and timeless appeal allow it to resonate with our audience in a way that feels both modern and enduring, making it an integral part of our aesthetic identity.”

There’s an inherent sensitivity within the color pink specifically that evokes strong emotions, something that has become an essential part of Magniberg’s modern neoclassicist sentiment as a brand. Soft pinks (and baby blues) have become a starting point for founders Nina Norgren and Bengt Thornefors—the fashionable couple often pulls inspiration for projects from old books like David Hamilton’s La Dance, which features photographs of ballerinas dressed in the hues. Norgren isn’t ashamed to admit that pink is her biggest color inspiration, noting that it ties everything together in life, from flowers in a garden to sunsets in the sky.

“Pink has a certain attraction,” she says. “My childhood memories are pink. Pink makes you feel naked, as a newborn. It is a friendly color. At the same time, pink is the first layer under your skin and the first color you see when you are injured with open wounds. Pink is a lot. It’s human, it is nature, it is all.”

In terms of the color pink, it can be high-risk for some—especially in the bedroom. The branding of “millennial pink” hasn’t necessarily helped its case either, but in recent years attitudes have seemingly shifted with the embrace of girlhood aesthetics defined by a new era of femininity. “Pink is not just a color, it is a way of living... It is an attitude,” Thornefors explains. “People tend to see pink as a soft and feminine color, but pink is so much more. It has such a strong impact. It makes people feel.”

For me, the pink appeal has never faded—it’s been my favorite color ever since I was a little girl, and throughout the decades I’ve rotated a palette in my bedroom that matches whatever sweet or sour phase I’m in, from bubblegum pink and cotton candy pink to pastel pink and hot pink. Lately, I’ve been loving softer shades of mauve and dusty rose that lean a little more on the subtle side. (No disrespect to Barbie!) Although pivoting to sateen sheets will unlock a new level of my devotion to pink, this is not the first time I’ve experimented with shimmery bedding—I’ve been using silk pillowcases as protection for my hair for years. Nevertheless, I’m tickled pink to be sleeping with more of these sheets and getting closer to the princess bed of my wildest fantasies.