JW Anderson's calendar for the SS22 collection

For the sixth season in a row, JW Anderson has chosen the paper format to present its latest SS22 women's collection. Once again the photographer is Juergen Teller but, unlike previous show-in-a-box, this year's collection appears on a calendar, with two looks for each month, one cover on the front and the other on the back. The imitation makes the verse to the famous photographic calendars that, according to the old cliché, are often found in the mechanics' workshops – and the mechanic's workshop is the environment evoked in the 26 shots (the real set was a tire shop in London), in which the models play between walls of used tires wearing the surreal knitwear clothes and the unstructured bags protagonists of the collection. Between one shot and another there is Juergen Teller himself, who is photographed in his underwear and surrounded by tires in his studio and with a camera around his neck. 

Although there is, on the level of the medium, a meta-modernist twist, the inspiration behind the actual clothes of the collection comes from the overabundance of floral motifs and the structural delicacy of Art Deco – especially with regard to the various artisan motifs that have always been part of Anderson's imagination. A further mirroring of the concept comes from the numerous contrasts present in the shooting: the contrast between the delicacy of the models themselves against the brutal aesthetics of the tires, the contrast of the whiteness of the studio with the semi-nudity of Teller but above all the contrast of the materials inside the clothes of the collection. Metal and resin in contrast with almost impalpable nappa leather dresses, hyper-glossy pink paint dresses decorated with dense wool threads, trousers of sturdy Japanese denim and crinoline tops. Even the volumes deconstruct on the human form, flaring and draping, opposing wide and other tight elements, heavy surfaces and other almost transparent. 

The automotive inspiration also continues in the new Bumper style that the brand has introduced this season, taken up in a new line of bags and shoes, which includes heels and mules. The style includes a rounded hem/seam that defines the silhouette transforming the curves of the bumper into a sort of platformer that, without actually expanding the volume of the various objects, seems to make them almost softer. The new style, as well as the rest of the details of the collection, represent JW Anderson's ability to place himself at the convergence of art, parody, surrealism and fashion, also subverting the stereotypes surrounding the idea of the fashion show and replacing the traditional format with a creative concept made and finished that, among other things, testifies how the inspiration of its creator was not only a gimmick invented in the pandemic but a real communicative program that tries to push the medium of fashion photography beyond its pre-established boundaries.