JW Anderson is a British fashion label, founded by Northern Irish designer Jonathon Anderson in 2008. The brand originally started off making only menswear but later ventured into womenswear too. It is now known for its unique aesthetic, offering a modern interpretation of masculinity and femininity through their silhouettes, creating clothes that are that mix elements of menswear and womenswear together.
His most recent spring 2021 ‘runway’ show is something that I’ve been inspired by for this future bodies project. With current COVID situations fashion and fashion runways have been put on hold and so JW Anderson came up with the idea of the show in a box as a response to overcome this current crisis within the fashion industry. In an interview with vogue he talks about how most of the runway shows in the modern day are all futuristic and create a digital reality but he found himself that he felt detached to this and he goes on to say “We are in an incredibly complex moment right now, and people don’t want fantasy — they want reality,” he said of his decision not to stage a show. “Modernity is not working on a digital runway show, but evoking what is really happening.”. This was something I have been hugely inspired by, we are so uncertain of what the future will look like and the current situation we are in is so important to how times are changing I think it’s really relevant to focus on COVID and how much its impacted us, especially for this project. In order to “take people away from their screens” he sent out a package that consisted of papers, prints, art and photographs all bound together that they could then take it apart and put it together how they felt, letting the audience take their own artistic control and allowing them to react to this collection in their own way. The photographs for this collection feature cut out images of different models wearing the different garments, each placed in front of a different background or environment and in doing this it allowed Anderson to promote the collection in an effective and stylish way during no contact times. I think this is really important as it comes up with a solution of how fashion can continue in these times and also creates a future where fashion runways can happen less frequently, which in turn also adds to the current sustainability crisis. He also spoke about how during lockdown in summer resources was minimal and so this show was entirely made with local resources. By recycling and reusing local materials it again makes this show more sustainable and better for the environment than normal runway collections due to lessening the amount of garments and materials being used. For this project I am inspired by the way Anderson uses materials that he has sourced from around him and because we are in a lockdown it is hard to get models for this project therefore I want to try and recreate this idea of a show in a box but in my own way. My ideas so far on how to do this is to make my own mini set, inspired by Emma’s workshop, using all recycled materials and bits from nature such as plants etc to try and create a runway show.
JW Anderson in an interview with VOGUE talking and showing his show in a box book collection.
A screenshot from his collection reveal of the cut out models lined up
