Backstage at JW Anderson
JW Anderson presented their Men’s Autumn Winter 2020 collection at Lafayette Anticipations a gallery usually home to contemporary art shows.
Creative Director Jonathan Anderson had curated the space to feature a myriad of black and white chairs and seated mannequins, each looking onto the runway with masks of French Poet Arthur Rimbaud. This, in homage to David Wojnarowicz’s series ‘Arthur Rimbaud in New York’ where the artist himself took photos of individuals wearing the same mask across various locations in New York.
“I’ve always been very inspired by his work. It could be very dark but I think there was still some optimism there. He had a political voice but not just for the sake of it. It was about creativity coming through a political voice.”
The influence also bore out on the mannequins looks, each dressed wearing black, white or red felted intarsia jumpers that featured another image from David Wojnarowicz work; Untitled (Burning House). These pieces have now gone on sale to support VisualAIDS, a contemporary arts organisation to support HIV+ artists.
The collection itself included stand out JW Anderson signatures; heavy gold chains featured on coats in checked double-faced wool and on loafer mules in leather and charcoal felt. In matching felt were tote bags with the brands popular anchor logos whilst others displayed the Burning House artwork. Paisley, which is appearing across the menswear shows this season was also present here on padded oversized coats and scarfs, whilst triangular and handkerchief cuts were also a recurring theme.
It’s clear that Anderson has established his brands codes and is confident in returning to these to underline the brands DNA across his new collections, especially since also becoming creative director of Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe.
Words DJ Titchener
Special Thanks to Hiroko at Pred PR Japan