Created with available resources in rather extreme conditions, MS21 and WRS21 are a playful celebration of what being restricted can mean and spawn in creative terms. The divide between wardrobes is intentionally blurry, but still present. What in menswear takes a slouchy feel in womenswear gets a classic sense of poise and elegance.
Presented on fictional characters - enlarged young male personalities - the collection juxtaposes notions of pragmatism and playfulness within a context of cozy domesticity. Volumes are round and enveloping, or elongated and sleepy, with blown-up details that keep their function in off-kilter scale, and unexpected touches providing jolly, frivolous diversions. Dresses, capes, pillow sweaters, cropped trousers, elongated jumpers and loafer mules reiterate and recon-textualize tropes of the brand’s DNA.
Patchworked jockey coats sprout patch pockets as roomy as bags. Sleeves get excessively long, trailing to the floor. Military capes spawn an excess of buttons. Long knits have an home-spun immediacy and a cozy intimacy. Slits create movement on tailored pieces. Pompoms draw the giddy contours of a plain sleeveless jumper. Faded denim is tailored into a patchwork coat. Blanket stitching underlines the addition and accumulation of elements.
Texture, either real or suggested by way of print on fabric as well as knit, adds another layer to the story: brocade impressions, tapestry motifs, targets, stripes, flowers, Pol Anglada’s blown-up faces. A sentiment of youthful, freewheeling amusement composedly comes to the fore.
Mysterious yet upbeat masks give a totemic presence to the characters wearing the collection, like they were portals to another dimension. Silhouettes and materials dialogue seamlessly with men’s: an interchangeability of shapes and solutions is well steeped within the codes of the brand. A sense of fluid elongation counterbalances the neatness of sharp tailoring. Ties, scarves and pompoms add an element of playfulness. Normality toys with non reality.
Patchworked coats and safari jackets worn with cropped culottes are emblazoned with outsized patch pockets. Double breasted suits match precise, round-lapeled blazers with relaxed cropped trousers. Dresses have handkerchief hems, built-in scarves, double panels that create flow and movement, or are fashioned from a patchwork of different fabrics and prints that create visual frenzy. A jacket is tied in the front, the volume gathered and then liquefied in two strips left dangling. Voluminous trousers are gathered at the hem and worn with oversized- sleeve shirts.
Engaging textures bring interest from shape to surface: juxtapositions or matte and shiny; monochromatic patchworks; brocade and tapestry impressions, flowers. The overall feel is an offset of sturdy presence and evanescent languor eerily kept together by Bertjan Pot’s abstract, colorful masks.
Thank you to all of the following for making these collections happen:
Benjamin, Drew, Nicola, Jess, Lily, Nina, Chiara, Francesca, Tommy, Janni, Sean, Dohan, Louise, Harriet, Sarah, Ffion, Tom, So-Min, Priss, Hana, Jean-Michel, Ana, Tim, Sam, Will, Fanny, Richard, Eata, Stuart, Colin, Julija, Rita, Ella, Barbara, Silvia, Simon, Balvinder, Lauren, Stephanie, Katerine, Laura, Blanca, Yvette and Serena.
For additional information contact:
Remi Villard, Marketing & Communications Manager, JW Anderson Remi.villard@JWAnderson.com