AFTER 18 months of showcasing his fantastical designs as immersive shows-in-a-box for his JW Anderson brand and Loewe, creative mastermind Jonathan Anderson returned to the catwalk for SS22, debuting an experimental collection brimming with trippy details, from sparkling metal breastplates to broken-egg heels.
The collection, pronounced by Anderson as neurotic and psychedelic, delved into the “hysterical” world of the 16th-century painter Pontormo, exploring his Mannerist style and emphasis on exaggeration and asymmetry through “notions of draping, sculpting and colour by way of torsions, diversions and distortions” the show notes said.
Models — a handful accessorised with choppy, mushroom fringes of hair that obscured their eyes — ascended stairs from a hole in the floor of a sprawling, pine-wood set, kicking off the extravaganza in trench coats worn back-to-front and dimension-twisting shift dresses.
Oversized denim jackets with elongated sleeves and neo-Grecian gowns followed as well as denim midi skirts bedecked with layers of silk and two-tone tracksuits ballooned to wondrous proportions. The show climaxed with a series of transparent moulded breastplates incorporated into pastel-tinged mini dresses.
Elegant tongue-in-cheek accessories included slouchy slipper boots in vivid, towel-like fabrics, translucent trainers and metallic pumps with heels shaped like birthday candles, short-stem roses, or a broken egg, the yolk spilling across the runway.
Overall, the collection was the kind of whirlwind fashion escapism Anderson does best. In addition to the return of live shows, the dreamlike display is sure to keep the fashion set talking for many months to come.
by Joshua Hendren