Jonathan Anderson, one of today's most daring fashion designers, took a risk Sunday night and starred in what may well have been the first almost exclusively pantsless men's show in Milan.
With sheer black pantyhose layered over their black underwear and dress socks, the male models only wore sweatshirts with large poinsettia brooches, extravagant cat-face sweaters, oversized tuxedo shirts with an extra pair of extra-long sleeves on form of streamers or, at least by an outlet: nothing more than deodorant.
Here's a JW Anderson men's fall collection that's quite light on the emotions of fashion, and also on clothes, recalling its show a year ago when several models appeared wearing only boxers and clutching rolls of wool fabric.
More substantial outings this time included sumptuous double-breasted coats with full sleeves and giant collars; oversized cotton blouses, velvet blazers and fuzzy cardigans paired with baggy cargo pants and gorgeous trench coats with epaulets and tab lapels.
The women's pre-fall collection was much more compelling and sexy than ever, and included fabulous mini trench coats, T-shirt dresses with pointed, twisted skirts, and cocktail dresses with deep V necklines and built-in glove sleeves, but worn with other gloves, the built-in ones hanging.
Also inventive, sexy and glamorous in an unconventional way: homey wool cardigans with satin linings that puff like whipped cream on a fluffy profiterole.
All of the above was inspired by a random repeat in August of Stanley Kubrick's “Eyes Wide Shut” and Anderson's discovery that the legendary director's widow, Christine, now 91, is the prolific painter behind all of Kubrick's works. art from his films, including “A Clockwork Orange” hanging in the window of the JW Anderson boutique in Milan.
During a press conference later that day at the store, Anderson explained how Christine Kubrick's artwork and provocative interiors in “Eyes Wide Shut” influenced Sunday's show, with a pair of her figurative paintings printed as a triptych in three floor-length cashmere sweater dresses. .
Anderson said he recently realized that his signature collections tend to be autobiographical. She spent a good portion of last year collaborating with Luca Guadagnino on the latter's next film: the William S. Burroughs adaptation “Queer,” starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey. Anderson described her fall 2024 show as “strange and perversely domestic.”
There isn't space in this review to discuss all of the psychology at play in Anderson's work, but it forces you to look at the collection with wide eyes.
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