JW ANDERSON: UNIQLO, Converse and More
“Converse have represented such a radical movement in style and culture.”
Starting his label in 2008, JW Anderson's namesake label took off, showing a sophisticated, muted aesthetic boldness, unlike ever seen before. Since then the label has amazed at every collection and has amassed a following of acclaimed people of all types.
JW Anderson is known for his creative intuitive sense, mixing feminine and masculine silhouettes an immediate sense of sophistication follows. Military style jackets with skirts are a classic example of JW Anderson's style. This seasons leather dresses, olive green bomber jackets with patchwork detail and boxy shirts with tailored crochet patches give a quintessential expression. Tapestry inspired prints on pants and landscape printed shirts with mandarin collars are essentials for JW Anderson menswear. Boxy cuts and long silhouettes offer an appealing choice for men and women's wear. Leather tier skirts and leather gathered collar tops with asymmetrical cuts make designs simplistic but edgy.
Known for collaborations, JW Anderson's most recent has been with Converse. Their sneakers are a personal favourite of the designers. About the design Anderson explained his inspiration saying that “When we came to Florence, I would see American and Japanese and British tourists walking around, I liked this idea of the kid in a denim short with a T-shirt and a pair of Converse.” Different from the designers usual esoteric styles , he collaboraton perfectly portrayed JW Anderson's own style in a more casual way. Height of sophistication meets classic street wear in this glittering addition to both labels. Talking about Converse Anderson said, “From my very first pair, Converse have represented such a radical movement in style and culture. The contrasts and similarities between the world of Converse and the world of J.W. Anderson creates a space of culture tension that’s a dream to play within as a designer.”
In the past Anderson has had collaborations with Ian David Baker and JWA X AWGE [Asap Rocky]. Future collaboration and highly anticipated this September is with UNIQLO. Staying true to its British roots the label offers an array of forward thinking and expressive clothing. The UNIQLO collection is also more economical than other designer collabs. Still offering high quality, one of a kind pieces, the outlook has been to offer a range of clothes to a wide variety of people.Its mixes designer pieces with practicality making it all about wearability. About the collection JW Anderson stated that “Uniqlo is something I wear daily, so it was personal to me and I became very excited,” For me, the point of doing this collaboration was that I believe in democracy in fashion, and what I hope will be achieved is that any age demographic can pick up and find something within the collection to relate to. Doing something with Uniqlo is very interesting. It’s a different exercise than with JW Anderson, because we have a wholesale network whereas Uniqlo is a retail network. It means you come up with a wardrobe which is universal and quirky.”