Can Wardrobe Basics Be Radical? Jonathan Anderson on His New Essentials for Uniqlo
On April 19, the Spring collection of JW Anderson’s collaboration with Uniqlo will arrive in stores. Don’t expect lines or hubbub—that’s not the Jonathan Anderson way—but do expect to see the designer’s colorful anoraks, mixed striped tees, and denim bucket hats everywhere once they’re available. Anderson’s first collaboration with the Japanese retailer had that every person appeal. “When I was coming here from Paris, I saw, like, nine people throughout the journey wearing it,” says Anderson over tea in the Brighton Pavilion in Brighton, England. “I quite liked that.”
Anderson rallied the fashion press to South England’s most storied, sordid seaside town in the dead of January to celebrate the announcement of this second Uniqlo range. When I step out of the car, the wind is whipping at the clattering windows of Drake’s hotel and gobs of hail are falling all around. The cold, cloudy weather makes the Brighton Pavilion’s 18th-century hallways and parlors all the more broodingly awesome. “I just thought it’s one of the most fantastical, mysterious buildings,” says Anderson. “Brighton has this amazing honesty in terms of a British type of summer. You know, it’s where the Victorians came to clear their lungs from London.”
Most partnerships get a big inaugural push. Why make a big deal about a second? Chalk it up to Anderson’s own evolution. In the time between his Uniqlo collaborations, he seems to have recalibrated his own approach to design. The man who once sent out male models in pale pink shorts with twee ruffles around the thighs is now producing straight-leg, pure indigo jeans at his eponymous menswear line; easy scarf-hem jersey dresses for women; and a wardrobe of intelligently effortless clothing at Loewe. As Vogue’s Sarah Mower put it in her review of the JW Anderson Fall 2018 collections, it’s “just enough fashion, but not too much.”
Anderson says: “I don’t know what’s happened in my design process, but I’ve become obsessed by this idea of perfect normality.” You could call it a rebuttal to street style peacocks or an accessories-driven marketplace, but Anderson’s sudden interest in the concept of wearability is just as likely to have stemmed from how he dresses himself. In his 10 years in the fashion spotlight, you’d be hard-pressed to find an image of him wearing anything but a navy or gray sweater or tee, Levi’s jeans, and Converse or Nike sneakers. He might not want to admit he’s become his own muse, but a certain pragmatism has become a defining aesthetic characteristic of his work.
“The brand’s been going for 10 years, and it’s this moment where you are trying to kind of really dig deep down into what the DNA is about,” Anderson continues. In some way, this Uniqlo collaboration could set the designer on a path for his next 10. “What I think I did learn from Mr. Yunai [Uniqlo’s CEO and founder] is this belief. I have never met someone with such belief in something,” Anderson says. “When I did that [Spring 2018] menswear show, it was a bit of a turning point for me because it was kind of . . .” he trails off.
Indeed, this second Uniqlo collaboration feels like a continuation of what Anderson started with that Spring 2018 menswear show, taking essential fashion tropes and modernizing them with a clever spin. There are simple subversions of British vacationwear here: chino shorts for men, cropped to a length that your average American man might call “daring”; kerchief-hem Breton stripe tees in a mismatched pattern; a poet blouse in banker blue; and a pack-and-go parka the color of a ripe tomato. If it sounds quite basic, you’re not far off.
“It’s an amazing base. It lets you be you,” says Anderson. There are not many products—and JW Anderson is probably not a very good example!—that let you be you. We try to, but ultimately, Uniqlo has this fantastic thing where you can be yourself through the clothes.”
Anderson insists that his collaborations are not merely for the sake of PR buzz. “For me, I’ve done it since I started the brand. The first collaboration I ever did was with an American photographer called William Gedney. I did it with Duke University, with an archive. I’ve always believed that you have to collaborate in some way, because it’s about associating yourself to things you believe in. It’s not being precious and saying JW Anderson is all that exists.” He talks about breaking down walls, about sharing ideas, about finding like-minded and kindred spirits.
Are you surprised to learn, then, that Anderson prefers to spend his time in South England at Charleston House, where Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury group established a bucolic retreat filled with collaborative sculptures, design objects, and paintings?
Here, Anderson gives us a tour of the haunts that inspired his Uniqlo reinterpretations of South British summertime style.
Jonathan Anderson’s Tour of Brighton, England
