JW Anderson’s fall 2023 present had a little bit little bit of the whole lot: a reside feminine bagpipe participant, a set that opened in full darkness, inexperienced t-shirts with phallic imagery, and a row entrance that includes Alexa Chung carrying one of many label’s newly debuted, lifelike frog clutches. However such is to be anticipated from one of the crucial commercially experimental designers of London Vogue Week.
Michael Clark, the Scottish dancer and choreographer, together with Jonathan Anderson’s personal archives of 15 years, have been the topics of inspiration for the gathering. Contained in the Roundhouse in Camden—the place lots of Clark’s performances have beforehand taken place—fashions wove between buildings that includes among the dancer’s most famously controversial and memorable posters (“Get pleasure from God’s Disco,” learn one). In the meantime, they wore odes to him: white Michael Clark emblem tank tops, destroyed sweaters with glitter-tipped fingers, and tops with references to the artist’s work. Clark is infamously an eccentric dresser who has collaborated with different maximalists like Leigh Bowery. The yellow smiley face quick overalls have been a extra literal interpretation of one in every of Clark’s costumes.
Anderson posted on his Instagram tales after the present that he usually resists trying again to the archives, very like Clark—however that the performer additionally represents the crossroads of style and tradition. “Dance, music, artwork, style… Once I take inventory of my very own stars, they’ve all been a part of his inventive universe,” the designer wrote. “Michael Clark isn’t solely a choreographer of our bodies, however of British tradition at giant.”
Just a few of these JW Anderson archives that bought a second likelihood at life? Easy grey suiting, checkered coats, inexperienced and orange feather boa trims over khaki attire, striped emblem tees, easy black attire with a slight aptitude or ruffle, and tailor-made uneven coats and vests. And whereas the primary a part of the gathering felt prefer it was inherently and purposefully wearable, the latter providing nodded to that little bit of humor and weirdness for which we all know Anderson finest: supersized triangular collars, puffs and tufts of ruffled material, and tubular collars and hems.
Anderson has a historical past of efficiently navigating collaborations that don’t really feel stale or overly branded (see his three-part sequence with Studio Ghibli for Loewe). The designer’s fall 2023 assortment additional cemented that ability. “As I seemed again via my very own archive for this present, resurrecting parts from every assortment of the final fifteen years, Michael let me rifle via his. It helped me pinpoint my obsessions,” he wrote.
There’s just one factor that might have made the gathering really feel extra full. Clark’s work is famously subversive—even a little bit brash and confrontational—and there have been many appears to be like right here that have been quite rooted in custom. It felt like a missed alternative to not experiment with dance, efficiency, and extra gender-bending on the runway—plus, there weren’t any body-diverse fashions. Nonetheless, among the little gems that riffed on Anderson’s signature humor and archives shined brilliant—like a grey Grecian costume inverted, its folds on the hem and neckline; or chunky, fluffy, strapless hoodies. After which there was the sheer bodysuit with a brown feathered tutu and a prime designed to seem like it was made out of Tesco luggage. These items didn’t whisper. Like Clark’s work, they shouted—they usually had the identical social media-driven attraction because the label’s ubiquitous pigeon clutch.
