THE SHOW notes of JW Anderson‘s spring-summer 2024 show describe the collection as both crude and blunt. Separately these adjectives are far from being positive but the very nature of Jonathan Anderson’s eponymous label is an underlying nature of bringing domestic elements into the public. His clothes at their surface don’t seem that layered but there has always been an intimacy to his designs – and this season was no exception.
Stripping everything back to the very rolls of fabric they came from, Anderson played with silhouettes as the material was coming from its source. Bumper tubes were added to sweaters, literal balls of yarn were merged together to create a three-dimensional top, and shaggy, layered fringing on tops became the ultimate trans-seasonal piece for cold summer evenings.
Fun is always a key theme at JW Anderson, with proportions messed with as shorts are made shorter, dresses are twisted around the torso, and of course, movement is king with legs poking through the dress’ asymmetric hemlines.
However, there were certain key moments of pure craftsmanship that were simple, restrained and maybe even a little blunt, focusing our attention on the sometimes forgotten beauty of clean design, like the mid-length leather coats and interlocking patchwork tanks.
And though there was no fuss or extravagance with SS24 menswear, the applause was still just as loud as his contemporaries showing during MFW. The secret to his deafening success is Anderson’s ability to give us the basics through the keyhole of his eccentric childhood vision that puts wearability and fun at the forefront, cementing him as fashion’s favourite wunderkind.
by Imogen Clark