JW Anderson A/W 2019 London Fashion Week Women's

JW Anderson a/w 2019 fashion show — JW Anderson A/W 2019.

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

Scene setting: We want up-in-the-clouds clothing. Pieces which are escapist, elevating and make our mind's soar. ‘The fantasy of imagination in fashion,’ Anderson said backstage, explaining what informed his A/W 2019 collection. To accompany his sky-high aesthetic, his models strode around a catwalk, which resembled a soft carpet populated with stones. It was in fact imagined as a cloud canopy, with model's shoe heels and trailing trouser hems squishing into the hemisphere.

Mood board: Anderson’s clothes can be tricky in terms of cut, but season upon season he refines the eclectic aesthetic which earned him early acclaim. Talk to women who watched the show, and there’s a multifarious viewpoint on the collection’s standout piece. A voluminous trenchcoat with checked lapels, an exaggerated square shouldered jacket, beige Oxford trousers, a bubble skirt with echoes of Cristobal Balenciaga. ‘I was thinking about how you see silhouettes from different angles,’ Anderson said. ‘With jackets that peel of like layers or a shoe breaking into two.’

Finishing touches: That sense of elevation was emphasised with leather baseball hats which appeared to float as fascinators on top of the heads of models. ‘It’s like they were pneumatic,’ Anderson said. We too were uplifted.