JW Anderson’s fall 2023 present had a bit of 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 sporting one of many label’s newly debuted, lifelike frog clutches. However such is to be anticipated from some of the 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 a lot of Clark’s performances have beforehand taken place—fashions wove between buildings that includes among the dancer’s most famously controversial and memorable posters (“Take pleasure in 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 brief overalls have been a extra literal interpretation of certainly one of Clark’s costumes.
Anderson posted on his Instagram tales after the present that he typically resists wanting again to the archives, very similar to Clark—however that the performer additionally represents the crossroads of style and tradition. “Dance, music, artwork, style… After I take inventory of my very own stars, they’ve all been a part of his inventive universe,” the designer wrote. “Michael Clark is just not solely a choreographer of our bodies, however of British tradition at massive.”
A couple of of these JW Anderson archives that obtained a second probability 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 collection with Studio Ghibli for Loewe). The designer’s fall 2023 assortment additional cemented that ability. “As I regarded again by way of my very own archive for this present, resurrecting components from every assortment of the final fifteen years, Michael let me rifle by way of his. It helped me pinpoint my obsessions,” he wrote.
There’s just one factor that may have made the gathering really feel extra full. Clark’s work is famously subversive—even a bit of brash and confrontational—and there have been many appears to be like right here that have been slightly 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 shiny—like a grey Grecian gown 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 high designed to appear to be it was made out of Tesco baggage. 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.
