J.W. Anderson F/W 12.13 London

[Fashion_Girl22]

catwalking.com

 

[Fashion_Girl22]

catwalking.com

 

[Fashion_Girl22]

catwalking.com

 

[Fashion_Girl22]

catwalking.com

 

[Fashion_Girl22]

catwalking.com

 

[WilhelmF]

Thank you for the thread The opening look is missing. Posting it (and JW bowing too, just for the sake of it )

Show Report
JESSICA BUMPUS | 19/02/2012

THE word has finally spread: JW Anderson is a very exciting young talent to know and if you're not yet a fan, you need to find out why you should be. On day three of London Fashion Week, the US press had arrived and were making a beeline for the Irish designer, who has been winning the fashion world over with his innovative designs for the last two seasons, having originally started out in menswear.

While a graduate from London College of Fashion, Anderson went back to Central Saint Martins today, showcasing his collection - entitled Chambers of Isolation - in the college's now retired Southampton Row building (which in this instance made for quite the apt title for quite the apt setting).

The idea behind the collection was taking a housewife oppressed by the confines of domesticity and exploiting the banality of the home furnishings that surround her and transforming them into the silhouettes, textures and colours - and adding something of a fisherman in there too.

So we had stark teased tweedy A-line or straight-down skirts, waffle-y and nubbly knits which were sobered up by neoprene quilted vests that tied at the side, glossy coloured patents in hospital-like uniforms, long skater skirts with square glitter panel jumpers and fisherman hats.

"Brave, forward-thinking and made in Britain are his defining features and he didn't disappoint," summed up Vogue's Emma Elwick-Bates after the show.

Anderson originally had ambitions to be an actor and it makes sense, then, that there is something of a movie star quality about him in the fashion world. He has that spark.

vogue.co.uk

 

[Not Plain Jane]

I like the refined use of quilting here, and the creepers (though many will hate that, I like them here). Also those big knits with the black stripe at the wrist and hem are great. Interesting collection.

 

[Crying Diamonds]

Very disappointed with the laziness of design - if you were to delete the outfits that have been perfectly repeated only in different fabrics this collection would wittle down to about 10 outfits.
There doesn't appear to be any difference with the last two outfits (apart from maybe a bit of fitting to the top) apart from the colour of the hat!

 

[Fashion_Girl22]

HQs






vogue.it

 

[Fashion_Girl22]

vogue.it

 

[Ives927]

Lazy design? I don't think so. J.W. has been improving and refining his aesthetic with each new season, it's exciting to watch. He's showing new silhouettes with a mix of conceptual and ready to wear pieces. He's one of the few young talents that continues to invigorate fashion week. I love the variety of fabrications offered in this collection. Each new season also sees a new direction while still maintaining his aesthetic. What more can you ask for from a young designer?

 

[Crying Diamonds]

Lazy design? I don't think so. J.W. has been improving and refining his aesthetic with each new season, it's exciting to watch. He's showing new silhouettes with a mix of conceptual and ready to wear pieces. He's one of the few young talents that continues to invigorate fashion week. I love the variety of fabrications offered in this collection. Each new season also sees a new direction while still maintaining his aesthetic. What more can you ask for from a young designer?

I see no creativity in cutting out the same block in the same fabric in a different colour with no alteration to even the styling.
This long-sleeve v-neck appears at least eight times in these looks shown without a single change apart from the fabric.
This gilet with horizontal stitch detail also appears eight times with none to very few changes.
He opened and closed the show with the exact same look with the colours swapped around.
All designers use blocks for their collections, but by changing the fabric and then, for instance, adding a pocket and shortening the sleeve, you get an entirely different garment, though I like his work, Anderson has given us no variety in this collection.

 

[Ives927]

All designers? Maybe you want to double check. Balenciaga would also be at fault of your claim for 'no creativity' by showing multiple looks that are the same for several seasons now.

So showing multiple variations of one look shows lack of creativity? Too each their own I suppose. And I never mentioned anything regarding creativity. I was pointing out his continuous evolution of his aesthetic and how he refines it with each season. This collection alone is 10x more exciting than 90% of what was shown in NY.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Crying Diamonds]

All designers? Maybe you want to double check. Balenciaga would also be at fault of your claim for 'no creativity' by showing multiple looks that are the same for several seasons now.

So showing multiple variations of one look shows lack of creativity? Too each their own I suppose. And I never mentioned anything regarding creativity. I was pointing out his continuous evolution of his aesthetic and how he refines it with each season. This collection alone is 10x more exciting than 90% of what was shown in NY.
Posted via Mobile Device

Ghesquiere is one of the worst for using the same block without changing it, I particularly remember those horrendous whale-net dresses he did a few seasons ago; they were all the same but in different colours.. Though I believe he can be forgiven through his enthusiasm for the new, and for the complexity of the original garments he does produce.
Every designer uses blocks, from Chanel to Alexander Wang, that is how it is possible to design 50+ look collections. If you carefully look at the collections you can see that Lagerfeld has just lengthened a blouse, changed the fabric and added some cute pockets to make a dress - the cut is identical, and therefore the pattern doesn't need to be changed - it's just the application of details, fabrics and colour that change the garment; remove the sleeves from a blouse and add it to a flared trouser and you have a jumpsuit - even in the same colours and fabrics it would be entirely different and even add to the cohesion of the collection.

I think you're absolutely right - this is 10x more exciting than the majority of New York, and he does have a unique aesthetic - that tiny pinch of knit poking through that v-neck is just such a beautiful little addition. I just wish for him to do more.

 

[Pradable]

 

[Tentacl Ventricl]

Fashion is seemingly in the grip of a wave of functionalism. Clothing as protection. Puffa Jackets; Armour; Muscular silhouettes; etc. Throw sports into the mix too - a form of combat of sorts. That can all be quite kickass can't it, so good then, we're all for strong women. Well yes. But wait. Survival. Of the fittest. Functionalism in fact as thinly veiled Social Darwinism.

The problem with elevating protection is that always already postulated out of frame is some predator or threat. I don't say fashion is inculcated in any direct conspiracy to join in perpetuating the well documented 'politics of fear' practised by Western Alliance governments. It's just that design and designers might come to reflect this psychology of fear increasingly present in the West since 9/11 and the attendant economic downturn.

America, besides being the main global pedlar of all things war, is the natural habitat of Social Darwinists. You don't tend to find them any place else. (By the time we arrive in Paris we're more about a culture influenced by Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze). The similarity between the opening few looks of Proenza Schouler AW12/13 and JW Anderson AW 12/13, in their evocation of martial arts protective gear, is more apparent than real. This is London guv.

JW (Jonathon's) title provides part of the key - 'Chamber of Isolation'. There's a certain straightjacketing effect in some of JW's looks. And the protective fabrication evokes the walls of a padded cell. Here then, fear itself, or the banality of domestic cosiness, which too much of either might send you crackers, is all there is to fear. Protective garb donned with a degree of irony. The demons ultimately being internal. There may be monsters in the world imagined or real but it's, like stress, how you deal with it. All that we might need protecting from might in fact be the madness of self-harm in all it's myriad irrational forms.

Much has been made of how derivative Proenza Schouler is this season of Balenciaga SS11. But I'd see JW Anderson's AW12/13 as in dialogue with another seminal Ghesquiere collection - AW10/11 with it's writing into the body of the garment of the surfaces and textures of mundane provincial domestic architectures and objects. Note references in Anderson to upholstery, aprons and vinyls reminiscent of 70's kitchens.

Whilst at London College of Fashion, Anderson was a window dresser for, not Balenciaga, but Prada. (Where apparently he became influenced by Manuela Pavesi and in turn the films of Pasolini). The facing off of the prim or the preppy with the perverse, and the check, look like Pradaism's to me. And those high shine looks in grey, mustard and burgundy recall, but move forward, the 'hospital scrub' looks that opened Prada SS11 (You could also, Wang as well, track the vinyls back to a couple of looks in Balenciaga AW08/09). It's just that now they seem located in the mental hospital. Although we mustn't fear accidents, spills (Chalayan) - they'll wipe clean.

In his Dazed interview Anderson says fashion is schizophrenic and a bit like espionage. I think he might have read some Deleuze. And he, of course, is as far removed from functionalism as you can get. Rather, he deconstructs it in all it's forms.