After a slew of surrealist-leaning collections, this season Jonathan Anderson took a new spin on everyday dress. Set inside a vast warehouse space in Milan, a procession of boxy rugby shirts, hoodies with exaggerated key-hole cut outs and woollen vests that jutted out like dresses, played out to a Frank Ocean-laced soundtrack.
Backstage, the designer – wearing Ireland’s new rugby shirt, in honour of his dad, former player Willie Anderson, with the show being held on Father’s Day – waxed lyrical about the “ease” of showing in the Italian fashion capital. It was a notion transferred to mini-dresses that hung from the body, seemingly light as air, and leather trenches which came in swollen proportions. His show notes spoke of “Clarity and directness, going askew”, with origami-style shirting peeling away from the body and tunic-style tops seemingly woven from carpets. At-home furnishings also inspired fringed knitted vests that looked like mops and structural tops made from an avalanche of yarn balls. “We’ve elaborated on things that are already ready-made,” said Anderson, cleverly re-analysing clothes and objects we’re exposed to in our day-to-day lives. In Anderson’s hands, suddenly, the mundane becomes magnificent.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
