Considering his experience at remixing different eras and creating modern garments based on historical costumes for contemporary men and women, many critics had bet that, invited to the Pitti Uomo trade fair as special guest, J.W.Anderson would have pillaged the art galleries to find more inspirations for his gender bending garments from Renaissance paintings.
Yet Anderson's S/S 18 menswear collection, showcased in the gardens of Villa La Pietra, couldn't have been more different from his original experiments with frilly and ruffled garments or from his Little Prince inspired collection.
Moving from the sort of clothes ordinary tourists wear in Florence, Anderson sent on his runway models in functional cotton chinos or ordinary wide-leg denim trousers matched with T-shirts, Breton tops and Aran sweaters with his JW intials accompanied by the anchor logo.
Outerwear mainly included trench coats and biker jackets covered in the print of the season, a Comme des Garçons-evoking heart (also replicated on shirts, shorts and bags), while the knitwear offer included childish sweaters inspired by a vintage baseball card or with patchworked hearts.
Then there was a dubious print inspired by Coca-Cola: Anderson replaced the name of the brand with his name, and the famous slogan "Drink" with "Wear".
He also remixed a classic Coca-Cola advert from the '40s that reminded people that "Militant Men Drink Coca-Cola", and changed it in "Militant Men Wear J.W. Anderson", and replaced the face of the soldier with a picture of him holding a mug of a concoction branded J.W.A.
In a way you felt the gender-challenge and the abstruse conceptual moods had been left behind in favour of a more commercial approach (there were experiments in collaging fabrics, but they were all rather reasonable and nothing was over the top). The designer himself claimed that he looked at his wardrobe to see what he liked to wear (well, if you don't like to wear the clothes you design, why do you design them?), and realised he mainly opted for ordinary and basic no fuss clothes. After all, as Miuccia Prada docet (and Anderson has learnt a lot from Prada…), if it ain't broken, don't fix it (just remix it a bit).
The will to go commercial was reinforced by Anderson's recent collaborations: while in March the designer announced he was working with Japanese apparel giant Uniqlo, the collection at Pitti served as a platform to launch a new collection of Chuck Taylors for Converse.
Yet it all looks a bit fake, to be honest: in search for something new and innovative Anderson found the comfort of the basics and the ordinary, almost to highlight that ruffles do work only in magazines and editorials, but in real everyday life you want something reliable and, more or less, timeless.
One thing that clearly emerged from this collection was that Anderson is another designer who may have more future in the accessories field: his bestselling "Pierce" was reinvented here as a pierced rucksack covered in scribbled red hearts and there were a few totes and weekender bags with more selling potential than the clothes (mind you, the '70s inspired crocheted bags maybe have been left behind, or, if you like them, make them by yourself).
The take on Coca-Cola seemed a bit too silly, though: Anderson designed a Diet Coke bottle in 2015, so you wonder if he was returning the favour.
Critics from more prominent fashion publications will justify the Coca-Cola take saying this is all so ironic, since it is to be taken as a fun spoof and parody of American ads.
Legally-wise Anderson shouldn't incur in any sort of copyright conundrum since the Coca-Cola logo, employing a form of Spencerian Script, was created in 1885 and it isn't copyrighted (even though its typeface is protected because it is the logo), but in the history of fashion other brands have been in the Coca-Cola realm, including Dolce & Gabbana and Asos.
J.W. Anderson should therefore be careful as his search for commercial success, may be turning him from the darling of conceptual gender-bending fashion fans into another mainstream sensation.
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