J.W. Anderson made such a name for himself as a provocateur that it s been a surprise to find he s recently become interested in pretty. "I m very into overtly feminine right now," he said at his new showroom in Paris, which you couldn t help notice is large and beautiful and has his name painted on the door. It s a recent acquisition since LVMH s investment in his company and his appointment to the head of the Spanish label Loewe. But Anderson, walking through the Pre-Fall collection—which he described as umbilically connected to the men s Fall collection—cautioned against drawing a correlation between art and commerce. "I hope we never become super-polished," he said. "Just because LVMH is here doesn t mean we have to change overnight. It s about a journey. It s not fake fashion."
Anderson, for good and for bad, is an adherent of fashion: the vertiginous ebbs and flows of it, the perennial quest for novelty (even while he pursues timelessness). He s built it into his process. He dives fully into one aesthetic only to reject it later, forming a daisy chain between menswear and womenswear that works in cycles.
Accordingly, the nylon-knit tunics (the more historically informed critics have been calling them tabards) that opened the men s show made an appearance here. Worn over long skirts, they had an appealing graphic line. Likewise the floral jacquards that appeared in men s as well. The real surprise was finding dresses and coats with long, inverted pleats. "I never have liked dresses," was his explanation, "so we re doing dresses." Some were worn with bubble-shaped opera coats that had the look of mid-century couture. (Apparently, they d been inspired by pieces from the 1920s.) Add in the fact that Anderson is now doing his own bags, too—structured satchels and bucket bags, saved from out-and-out normalcy only by their squared-off handles—and you could almost believe Jonathan s gone straight, if a little heavy. The collection lacked some of the sweet lightness that made Spring a standout.
Anderson explained that Pre-Fall represented a chance to work the inspirations for menswear out of his system. "I think it s good to keep the men s and pre-collection close," he said. "We ve always done it and it defines the brand. I like the cleansing when you get to the women s Fall collection, because you re so bored of it."
