SPRING SUMMER 2021 SHOW IN A BOX
JW ANDERSON presents WS21 as a show in a box, stabilizing and expanding the medium that has first been introduced with men’s and women's pre-collection.
Wrapped in newspaper paper, it takes the form of a book bound with screws and made of different types of paper, binders with photos, colored sheets. The collection is depicted through pictures in an array of different formats.
A note by Oscar Wilde opens and guides the process, stating The secret of life is in art. A brass coin is the impromptu instrument that makes the whole experience possible.
Rather than evoking what is not possible, the show in a box creates a new engagement and a new excitement that are only possible now.
WS21 is a celebration of fashion at its most frivolous, embellished, poetic; escapist and liberating, even. The outburst of lightness - both metaphorical and real - is framed within the classic sense of poise and elegance which has become a JW Anderson signature.
The collection moves, swings and weaves between the unremitting sharpness and martial precision of the high-uniform tainted tailoring and the languorous draping and coiling asymmetries of languid dressing, drawing an accumulation of different aesthetic experiences that clash into an harmonious whole.
The woman, she is a collector, giant toy earrings dangling from her lobes.
Neat and fluid, solid and embellished, luscious and dry are constantly played off one with the other, or tied together. Double breasted military coats swarm in an excess of patch pockets. The same sense of controlled exaggeration carries in the outsized pointed collars of the belted coats, in the protruding peplums of the faultless tuxedo jackets, in the oversized sailor collar of the double-breasted peacoat/blazer. Cropped full trousers sprout rather incongruous cargo pockets.
Decoration is in full swing: embroidery on long satin tops, colorful jacquards, jewels that become integral to the pieces, holding and releasing volumes on gathered shirts and tunics, piercing tops and waistbands. Asymmetries, knots, gatherings further agitate the volumes, in a harmony of straight and curved lines. Handkerchief hems and flowing panels bring out a sense of the undone and movement that sits barely there.
The quest for decoration and frivolity brings surface and texture to the fore: juxtapositions of matte and shiny; flower jacquards; a multiplication of pleated motifs.
The overall feel is an offset of control and abandon, essential elements in the ever expressive, performative language of dressing.