Dear Shaded Viewers,
“Creativity will always win, no matter what” was Jonathan Anderson’s message for this second show in a box collection for Spring/Summer21.
The creative director hosted a live-streamed event in which he sat in front of the camera, explaining his collection with an honest reflection on his brand and what it means to him now. Though it has been a challenging time for everyone, he expressed that it had been a rewarding time for him, as he was able to develop a new understanding for the brand he established in 2008.
In an interview, he expressed that he chose to do a box instead of a runway because, “Fashion is about modernity in its moment, and when I look at shows as a digital reality, they do not speak to me at all. As much as they are spectacular there is something that feels incredibly old, or detached, about it…” The show in a box (2.0) included colourful pages, small mannequins of models wearing the latest collection, photographs by Lewis Ronald… all wrapped in paper with Oscar Wilde quotes which ended with “the secret of life is in art.”. The box served as an interactive experience; giving the audience the control; offering them the option to dismantle it, put it together, hang it on the wall… to play with the elements in the way they desired.
Regarding the fashion, the press release read, “It is a celebration of fashion at its most frivolous, embellished, poetic; escapist and liberating, even.”, as the collection featured JW Anderson’s familiar modern silhouettes, with exaggerated puffy skirts that were belted onto blazers and suits, the signature loafers with chains, long decorative earrings, asymmetric tops… that all had a sense of lightness in them while still being pragmatic. It was a collection that reflected our times, in an emotional yet hopeful way.
