The oneiric world of JW Anderson does not stop and in this Milan Fashion Week it went crazy. For this show the current designer of Loewe presented a menswear collection that use some of the elements that made the brand iconic, surrealism concepts but very wearable and utilitarian. The runway was located at a warehouse space that saw how models were walking at fairy tale tunes with dreamy clothes on. It discuss how real things are both objective and subjective at the same time, because it depends on the person that are standing and watching the garments.
There were a lot of ideas in this one show. A shared wardrobe concept was presented, meaning that never before neutrality of gender in clothes have been more clear. It also took inspiration from The Pitchfork Disney by Philip Ridley, which is a theater script that impacted the designer when he was growing and he wanted to represent the shock of it with some of the looks, like the more sculptural ones. But we can see the print of a 400 years-old self-portrait of Rembrandt, the famous painter, that serves as a reflection in how we use technology in the same ways after all this years.
JW Anderson SS23 Menswear is a space to explore nostalgia and revive your childhood. The used of normal day-to-day objects on a sculptural way is emphasizing the crazy dreams that we have when we are little, that pure and raw creativity that comes from the inside without asking. Some of this garments might clash with some others more normal look-alike clothing in the collection, but that gave to the audience a question in whether fashion is the more avant-garde or the classic looks. As all the rest of the presentations by the designer, it is created to make you think and not to be a passive consumer that just buy stuff.
The first show at Milan of the brand it was too. So it was perfect to show pieces that generate some type of talking about consumerism, that is one of the main ideas in the show. The importance of the context is also highlighted by some of the colocations and cuts in the garments, like the QR t-shirt and pants. But thanks to this mindset, Jonathan is pushing his creations to its absolute limits, creating a visual world that translate our society problems perfectly. Metaphors galore were thrown at our way intentionally to reflect the elements of the past in the now.
Alvaro Ramos
