Mood board: In recent seasons Jonathan Anderson has used his Bloomsbury runway space to highlight his extensive art and design inspirations — last season Liz Magor’s Pet Co. (2018), an installation of museum archive inspired boxes took center stage. But for A/W 2020 his eponymous brand’s show set design was unusually stripped back, featuring only single lines of black benches and a cream carpet. ‘I was thinking about how you compete with a space,’ Anderson said backstage of his A/W 2020 inspiration, which also explained his stark set up. ‘You forget with shows that models have to walk into a room full of strangers.’ Devotees of Anderson’s clothing will have no trouble competing with any setting. For autumn they’ll be sporting XL coats with oversized shawl collars, described by Anderson as a ‘favourite moment of excess’, caped dresses in lurex fil-coupé, picnic blanket capes and densely ruffled blouses with cascading pussybow collars. A room with an internal view indeed.
Best in show: Anderson is famed for his encyclopedic range of references, and the everyday influence behind a draped metallic dress — emblazoned with brewery typography — drew on the humour and wit he brings to design. ‘Not to be Irish and cliché but I used to be obsessed with the Guinness campaign, the iconography of its can and it’s typography’ he chuckled. The dress’s folding pleats resembled something like an aluminium can being crushed. In a more organic turn, the shredded celluloid fringing which swathed the shoulders of sequinned dresses, ribbed knits and checked coats, was inspired by ‘melting ice.’
Finishing touches: Anderson added another lust-worthy accessory to his already brimming roster: a molded leather bag style in the shape of a punchbag. Kitten heels were imagined in hairy calfskin with rhinestone ankle straps or adorned with discs of crystal, which jangled with the movement of the wearer. §
