Five Take-Aways from JW Anderson’s Leisurely S/S19 Collection

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JW Anderson S/S19Photography by Daisy Walker, Courtesy of JW Anderson

The designer’s latest outing was defined by a renewed sense of ease

Jonathan Anderson made his name with esoteric collections challenging the constraints of the way that men and women dress. In the years since – his eponymous label, now stylised as JW Anderson, has been in business for just over ten years – the designer has at least in part eschewed the visceral, headline-grabbing garments of early collections for a greater emphasis on reality. This is not to say an intellectual approach to clothing has been entirely abandoned – at this weekend’s show, he discussed the work of artist Lynda Benglis who operated in the 1970s, and a subsequent will to “reinvent the idea of reinvention”. Rather, more cerebral musings are replaced with simpler questions: Who is the JW Anderson woman now? What does she want to wear? 

In answer, a S/S19 collection which proffered a renewed sense of ease, at once seductive and leisurely. Anderson is a longtime visitor to Ibiza – for the previous two summers, he has hosted a pop-up boutique there for Loewe, where he is creative director – and the untroubled bohemianism of the Balearic Isles seemed to inform this season’s outing. As such, sotfly tailored suiting, yoke-fronted shirt dresses and fringed handkerchief hemlines, in roomy proportions, suggested an uncomplicated sense of womanhood. (Though, if these garments appeared simple, a collage of broderie anglaise, tassels, macrame and crotchet were a nod towards the intricacy of craft he has fostered among recent collections.) “I wanted something a bit more bohemian,” he offered backstage. “A celebration of fashion. Everything with fluidity to it, and patchworked, somehow.” Here, we take a closer look at his latest offering – and what we’re taking away. 

1. A bandana is a suprisingly practical accessory

What more emphatic endorsement of an accessory than its inclusion in every one of the show’s 54 looks? Here, the accessory in question was a bandana – or, as some reviewers deemed it, a washerwoman’s headscarf – appearing in either black and white, loosely tied and embellished with a three-ring brooch on the forehead, to balance rustic origins with a subdued sense of glamour. It reminded that the bandana is a suprisingly versatile accessory, and practical too – relieving, as it does, the necessity to do one’s hair in the morning. 

2. Leave it unbuttoned 

Nothing symbolises the shift from work to leisure time quite like the unbuttoning of a shirt – for those who spend their days in corporate attire, it is often the first impulse upon returning home of an evening. In this spirit, extra-long shirt cuffs were left purposely undone to suggest a laissez faire approach to dressing, so too the yoke-fronted shirting, similarly unbuttoned at the neckline. What says ease like a garment ready to slip on and off at a moment’s notice? 

3. Eclecticism is encouraged

Anderson has long been able to combine disparate elements into a cohesive whole, as was the case here: 1980s-style puff sleeves in leopard print sat next to delicate broderie anglaise; workwear-inspired denim with ladylike leather handbags; crafty macramé stitched on sturdy herringbone blazers. It made one thing clear: the JW Anderson woman is defined by an easy eclecticism. She will never be matchy-matchy.

4. Dress for comfort

From top-to-toe – in this case, the toe being a pair of JW Anderson-branded Converse – Anderson propositioned something all too rare in fashion: comfort. This was a woman free to move as she pleases, thanks to a proliferation of roomy garments. That said, this is clothing just as well attuned to doing nothing at all – pyjama-style suiting and lightweight cotton tunics call out for day-long reclining. 

5. A healthy glow completes the look

If the Balearic Isles were the spiritual home of the collection, then make-up looks were suitably sunkissed – stripped bare of visible signs of make-up, models were simply accessorised with the healthiest of glows. A change in the weather might necessitate waiting until next summer to achieve the look through natural means, but liberal use of bronzer provides a solution in the meantime.