JW Anderson has been at the shears cutting up all manner of eveningwear to create some beautiful things. When he wasn’t chopping at the lapels of a dinner jacket, and fashioning them into a scarf, he was sewing the sleeve of one jacket to the body of another – the two came in slightly different, and hardly discernible, shades of black. Another dinner jacket – the sleeves left on the cutting room floor – became a waistcoat. The back of it was more like a panel of a kimono. It stuck out like two fabric triangles.
This new “un-stitch and re-stitch” look also came with added special bits; the kind stocked at a good haberdashery. Trims ran across two knitwear panels, and tassels – the ones that trace a table lamp – ran diagonally across another beautiful knit. Like an ode to an accomplished home-sewer, Anderson deftly took away then added and also reattached to create all kinds of garment-chimeras. It grew increasingly complicated, when flapping horizontal bands of knitwear hung from a knitted crew-neck collar like a really breezy jumper. On top of this, the model wore a same-style cardigan. The new twin-set? A fine-gauge, gold Lurex knit with a hood had two holes at the side. Through these, a model dangled his arms. The sleeves, proper, were left ignored and moved around like knitted sparkly ornaments. Next-level styling. Next level stuff. Jonathan Anderson is one of the most accomplished designers of the Paris menswear season.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
