JW Anderson London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2014

J.W. Anderson is a designer known for his artistic and unique design aesthetic and at just 29 the North Ireland native has already been showing at London Fashion Week for since 2008, has had not one, but two amazing capsule collections with Top Shop and won the British Fashion Award in 2012 for Emerging Talent In Ready-To-Wear Design. It's safe to say JW is a designer who doesn't know how to not be a major success. In his latest Spring/Summer 2014 collection J.W. experimented with a sophisticated black and white color scheme as well as splashes of red, green, yellow and brown. Silhouettes in the collection were billowy and whimsy creating an artistic feeling. All of the ensembles were truly fashion-forward and designed for fashion risk takers!

The show kicked off with a series of head to toe sheer organza floor length skirts gathered horizontally with elastic strips finishing with peasant blouse shapes on top, playing with volume, proportion and texture all at the same time. Adding another element of texture, pleated-section leather look midi skirts were teamed with fully sheer fine organza crop tops with a doubled up layer of square fabric almost hiding models' modesty. More modern and conceptual designs followed showcasing skills in origami style shaping with sculptured structures taking form on a monochrome color palette. Backstage Anderson said, "I wanted to juxtapose opposing fabrics; mix pleather with leather, cotton with nylon, and silk with polyester. I also wanted to challenge myself and explore new fabrics - like jersey".

JW Anderson London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2014 collection built slowly, with the first look a transparent long georgette skirt and T-blouse, crossed with bands of elastic. These were followed with the kind of deconstructed pieces the designer has become known for. His trademark twisted jumpers were worn back to front with skirts made of pleated leather, short at the back and long at the front. Those pleats also came in a herringbone pattern, not unlike the parquet wooden flooring of the venue Anderson was showing his collection in, and there were tunics of scrunched leather, recalling the contents of packing crates. The trios of pretty sequined skirts with hexagon patterns were the most immediate takeaway. They will surely be seen on Anderson's growing army of fans come spring 2014. With show notes referring to wipe clean table cloths, Vileda supermops and takeaway boxes, the detritus of a kitchen was in focus. In Anderson's hands, though, they were anything but every day. He dubbed them "avant-bland".

Folded and basked weave leathers were cut on the cross. As the models strode down the catwalk in their throat-lapping sheaths and calf length skirts they sometimes looked like a human extension of the parquet flooring. That's not to say there weren't some heart-stopping pieces, because there were.

Irish-born Anderson is a technical whiz. His papery skirts and leathery tunic waistcoats are collector's items in the unfolding. And he also gets points for acknowledging his origami and folding debts to the Japanese designers of the Eighties. So collectable and admirable, yes, but somehow now quite lovable The collection ended on a high with a series of halter-neck triangle shaped draped dresses with barely visibly straps. On his collection baring lots of flesh, Anderson explained after the show, "It was actually boiling in my studio which really made me find an appreciation for bare flesh and lightness."



Credit: Zahra Kerry