Hoodies and tailored shorts moulded from plasticine were presented during British fashion brand JW Anderson’s Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show at London Fashion Week.
Returning to Camden’s iconic Roundhouse venue, where it also presented its Spring Summer 2023 show, JW Anderson showed its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear collection under the guise of “putting playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness.”
The opening look for the show was a grey hoodie with stark white drawstrings, which was paired with rolled-cuff white shorts and brown leather sandals.
Bar the sandals, the complete look was moulded from plasticine, a type of clay.
A trio of the moulded looks was sent down the runway, with pieces that had been sculpted and hardened into rigid forms.
Each of the sleeves of the hoodies had been crafted with slits at the crook of the arm and fitted with zips to the cuff to enable movement.
Models walked onto the runway with their hands placed rigidly within the front pocket of the garment.
“The wearable everyday staples are sculpted, becoming conceptualised and malleable,” said JW Anderson. “Classic draping methods are instead replaced by the act of manual moulding.”
The hoodies and shorts appeared in a number of different colours typically associated with plasticine. Hoodies were presented in hues of grey, flesh and bright orange, while the shorts came in shades of white, blue and grey.
In the show notes, the brand described the collection as: “Putting playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness. Clothes meant to be used, misused and toyed with. The everyday, and the out there.”
“Proportions that shrink, curve, tilt, expand,” it added. “Clarity and purposefulness, with a crafty bent. The hoodie, the perfecto, the bomber jacket, the blazer; the trousers, the cargo trousers, the shorts; the minidress, the dress.”
“Padded, knotted, exploded; crocheted, molded, draped. A sense of plainness that is not so plain. Of function with the oomph of play.”
The use of plasticine was hinted at prior to the show, with guests’ invitations taking shape as blocks of colourful, plastic-wrapped Scola Colour Clay plasticine that were delivered in JW Anderson cardboard sleeves with information about the show.
The show also featured familiar, tied plastic-bag looks that nodded to the brand’s Spring Summer 2023 plastic-bag fish dress, but had been reinterpreted as inflated sportswear in bright and bold plasticine hues.
JW Anderson was founded by Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson in 2008. Anderson is also the creative director at Spanish luxury brand Loewe.
Following the opening of Anderson’s first JW Anderson store in Milan, the designer spoke to Dezeen about how he sometimes feels he “fell into doing fashion.”
The photography is courtesy of JW Anderson.
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