Jonathan Anderson introduced the world of rugby to Milan Fashion Week yesterday when he took his bow wearing Ireland’s unreleased shirt, by Canterbury, for this September’s Rugby World Cup in France. “It’s because it’s father’s day today, so I thought I would,” said the designer. Willie Anderson, Jonathan’s dad, served as captain of Ireland’s Rugby Union team. That sweetly personal nod to the intimacy of our experienced domestic worlds ran through a collection that was rooted in Anderson’s own cultural experience but which also resonated more broadly. As ever at JW Anderson, the subject is approached in provocatively perception-altering ways. The set and backstage were decorated in the massively blown up blue and white stripes of Cornishware, a ceramic style once all the rage across the British Isles. This, said Anderson, signaled “conformity, things that are part of the household and become part of the psychology… things that are around you and become part of you subconsciously.” The ordinary becomes extra.

Rugby shirts, obviously central to Anderson’s own childhood experience, were bolstered with Bar jacket style hips and presented in knit or stiff jersey. Sweatshirts, fine knits, came with massively oversized v-notches that were then cut-out. In looks 44 and 48, these were knit in a nubbly weave inspired by the ’70s sofa in Anderson’s office. Schoolboy shorts (a theme seen earlier at Prada) boasted enough room for a spare leg at the left hip, thanks to a flying buttress of extra material at the side. Knit sweaters and dresses came with two bolsters, filled knit panels that snaked diagonally up the front of the torso like the homely spiraling baskets Anderson was inspired by. There were waxed knit shoes and waxed knit clothes in a mesh that vaguely resembled fruit bags and old-school collapsible shopping totes. Anderson estimated that around 70 per cent of the collection was knitwear. The wittiest of knits included tops fronted with what looked like balls of yarn – because they were. “Knitting has become such a craze and this is going back to the raw materials.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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