The soundtrack at today's J.W.Anderson show - Imperfect List by Big Hard Excellent Fish, the choice of superstar DJ Michel Gaubert - set a tone of discomfort; a mood of disgust with the world around us, from the mundane trials and tribulations of daily life to the evils we both revile and accept and overlook in equal measure. 'Red sock in the white wash. Tiananmen Square. Sexual harassment,' listed the narrator. One line in particular stood out: 'evil gossiping fashion bastard.' Few probably noticed it; they were no doubt distracted by that striking purple rubber floor or the covetable jackets and intriguing arts and crafts fastenings. It's poignant though because J.W has no time for the 'fashion bastards' or the fashion system as a whole; despite being the industry's darling he's its most out-spoken critic.
On his way up, J.W became so good at playing the game - giving suitably controversial quotes to press and dreaming up suitably punchy show pieces to win headlines - that he finally realised that the game doesn't matter. It's not who you seduce at the show that matters but what ideas you can sell en mass. So what's the marketable story for A/W 15? Well it ties back into that idea of fashion's great set-up being redundant and antiquated. J.W has no time for honouring this or that reference. So he'd pulled from everywhere; shapes were vaguely seventies but also nineties - see those flares, exaggerated cuffs and cropped coats. This was about mashing up decades and proving that no generation or time period owns anything. Grumblers or naysayers within the fashion pack will call it uncredited referencing or overzealous tributing, largely because they love nothing more than being able to identify the providence of hues, forms and shapes in shows; for many journalists it's their whole raison d'être. But J.W has no time for that, and that's what makes him a pioneer. This was new due to its treatment of the old. That sounds complex but J.W doesn't like to make things simple. That said, when it comes to shopping this will pull in punters quick and easy.
