Dezeen Magazine

JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024

JW Anderson creates clay-moulded hoodies and shorts at London Fashion Week

Hoodies and tailored shorts moulded from plasticine were presented during British fashion brand JW Anderson's Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show at London Fashion Week.

Returning to Camden's iconic Roundhouse venue, where it also presented its Spring Summer 2023 show, JW Anderson showed its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear collection under the guise of "putting playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness."

Photo of a model at the JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024 show
JW Anderson presented its Spring Summer 2024 collection at London Fashion Week

The opening look for the show was a grey hoodie with stark white drawstrings, which was paired with rolled-cuff white shorts and brown leather sandals.

Bar the sandals, the complete look was moulded from plasticine, a type of clay.

Photo of a clay hoodie at the JW Anderson show
Hoodies and shorts were moulded from clay. Photo is by Jason Lloyd Evans

A trio of the moulded looks was sent down the runway, with pieces that had been sculpted and hardened into rigid forms.

Each of the sleeves of the hoodies had been crafted with slits at the crook of the arm and fitted with zips to the cuff to enable movement.

Models walked onto the runway with their hands placed rigidly within the front pocket of the garment.

"The wearable everyday staples are sculpted, becoming conceptualised and malleable," said JW Anderson. "Classic draping methods are instead replaced by the act of manual moulding."

The hoodies and shorts appeared in a number of different colours typically associated with plasticine. Hoodies were presented in hues of grey, flesh and bright orange, while the shorts came in shades of white, blue and grey.

Photo of the clay clothes
The clay clothes were presented in different colours. Photo is by Jason Lloyd Evans

In the show notes, the brand described the collection as: "Putting playfulness in pragmatism and pragmatism in playfulness. Clothes meant to be used, misused and toyed with. The everyday, and the out there."

"Proportions that shrink, curve, tilt, expand," it added. "Clarity and purposefulness, with a crafty bent. The hoodie, the perfecto, the bomber jacket, the blazer; the trousers, the cargo trousers, the shorts; the minidress, the dress."

"Padded, knotted, exploded; crocheted, molded, draped. A sense of plainness that is not so plain. Of function with the oomph of play."

Photo of a model
Looks evolved from the Spring Summer 2023 collection

The use of plasticine was hinted at prior to the show, with guests' invitations taking shape as blocks of colourful, plastic-wrapped Scola Colour Clay plasticine that were delivered in JW Anderson cardboard sleeves with information about the show.

The show also featured familiar, tied plastic-bag looks that nodded to the brand's Spring Summer 2023 plastic-bag fish dress, but had been reinterpreted as inflated sportswear in bright and bold plasticine hues.

Photo of a model wearing a padded look
Other looks were padded, knitted, knotted and sculpted

JW Anderson was founded by Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson in 2008. Anderson is also the creative director at Spanish luxury brand Loewe.

Following the opening of Anderson's first JW Anderson store in Milan, the designer spoke to Dezeen about how he sometimes feels he "fell into doing fashion."

The photography is courtesy of JW Anderson.

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JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024
JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024
JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024
JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024
JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024
JW Anderson Spring Summer 2024