Fashion Designer J.W. Anderson: Far Out and Yet In

Awarded both women's wear and men's wear designer of the year (2015) at the British Fashion Awards, J. W. Anderson is known for his idiosyncratic and gender-bending approach to modern fashion. His aesthetic is always anddrogynous, as is his fascination with edgy, high tech materials as they relate to fashion and the dynamic between men and women, which he explores endlessly in each and every fashion collection.

JW Anderson ensemble
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Who is John William Anderson?

This small town boy with big dreams was born in 1984 in a tiny hamlet in Northern Ireland. He has stated that this solitary fact motivated him to succeed. As a boy, he wanted to be a actor rather than a designer and he pursued a course of study  at the Studio Theater in Washington, DC. Alas, for it was not meant to be, as the lure of beautiful costumes redirected his fickle muse into costume and eventually, fashion design.

He relocated to England where he studied menswear at the London College of Fashion. As a student, he worked for Prada as a window dresser and in 2008, three years after his graduation, he launched his first menswear collection. In the winter of 2010, he  released a capsule collection for women's wear and presented his first catwalk display at London Fashion Week. In his own words: "I was already doing accessories and women were buying them so it translated into doing women's wear." The collection was a huge success.

Anderson MensWear
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In 2012,  J.W. Anderson was awarded the 'Emerging Talent Award'  by the British Fashion Council and in September of that year, he collaborated with high-street giant, Topshop, on a limited clothing and accessories collection that sold out in just a few hours. In 2013, he was named creative director of the Spanish luxury house, Loewe, which is an LVMH-owned brand  famous for their leather goods. (Best known as LVMH, Moet, Hennessy, Louis Vuitton SE is a European luxury goods conglomerate headquartered in Paris, France.) In june of 2013, Anderson received much acclaim for his first collection for the Versace diffusion line, Versus.

Anderson Women's Wear Collection

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J.W. Anderson avoids designing evening dresses because he hates them. In his own words: "Evening wear is only for award ceremonies and tripe." Among his many fans are more than a few big names including: Alexa Chung, Pixie Geldof, Rihanna, Rita Ora and Vogue Magazine.

The future of J. W. Anderson

J. W. Anderson is always his own person; provoking, challenging and a defiant pusher of any envelope that says fashion should be done this or that way. Although interpreting the explicit message behind his fashion designs  is quite  difficult if not impossible, his work is one-of-a-kind, riveting and memorable for the wearer whose heart pounds to the beat of a different, far out and unconventional drum. His garments are costly and not meant for the average consumer.

J.W. Anderson is a talented fashion designer with a future and and an  artist to both watch and admire.

Do you think that it is more difficult for today's fashion designers to please the public that their predecessors of yesteryear? if so, explain.

Closing thoughts on fashion design:

Though I'm a fashion designer, I never stuff my luggage with too many items. ~ Reem Acra