Jonathan Anderson made an interesting point while he was presenting his Resort collection a day after what might have been his best men's show to date. He claimed that the minimums demanded by fabric manufacturers meant he has to amortize his materials across both J.W. Anderson womenswear and menswear, enforcing an almost androgynous symbiosis. Makes sense. In this particular pair of collections, the shirtings were the same, and so were the diagonal stripes. (They also shared the scarf-tied silhouette and the twisted leather loafers.)
But beyond any of that, Anderson's particular obsessions aren't really bound by gender. Where your pockets are positioned, how you put your hands in them—these were issues that fascinated him this week. So his chinos had pockets placed low at the front, creating a slightly awkward stance. Awkwardness is the sort of abstraction the designer loves. However, his Resort collection soft-pedaled on the abstract in favor of "wearability with an edge." There were some splendid items, like the trench cut from toile-ing canvas, with buttons of horn, and the draped, almost tribal pieces cut from textile maker Jessica Mort's weave of jersey and Airtex. Anderson's new position at leather house Loewe influenced a neat little blouson with a collar of red napa leather and a lining that is usually used in bags. The precision of these looks was a smart and necessary counterbalance to the elongated, morose outfits, which seemed less engaged by wearability.
As far as edge went, the most striking elements in the collection were the ceramic cuffs Anderson commissioned from an Irish artist. Not remotely practical, he acknowledged, but they felt good.
