There's something about Jonathan
The first time I remember coming across Jonathan Anderson was nearly ten years ago when the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman did a series on different fashion designers’ workspaces. The series was called ‘In the Studio’. This was during the ‘Vogue Voices’ era where publications were throwing everything at the wall and trying to figure out what stuck. Anyways, it was Victoria Beckham’s ‘In the Studio’ episode that pulled me in and while I admire Posh, it was Anderson’s episode that has stayed with me, all these years later.
The man in the episode was beautiful, maybe not in the most conventional sense but in a ‘he-has-that-sadness-in-his-eyes-that-you-would-only-see-in-Eastern-European-gay-porn’ way. Tumblr girlies would know. This was also one very exhausted man and the exhaustion was palpable through the screen. In the video, the most important point he makes is about how creativity is the most important aspect of designing but simultaneously, you can’t make collections that are simply not going to sell. This is such a simple point he makes and yet, it is lost on so many designers both from past and present.
I myself once nurtured a dream of being a fashion designer. While I abandoned the dream nearly a decade ago, I am still grateful that I did not pursue designing straight out of high school. Because for starters, it is a capital heavy industry and capital is an entity that continues to allude me today, even after having worked my ass off for the past decade or so. Also, I wanted to be a fashion designer for me and for me alone. I mean sure, when you devote your life to a vocation in many ways it has to be about you. But with design and this is strictly my observation, if you want to last you have to deviate the focus from yourself to your customer sooner rather than later. In an alternate universe, would I have been able to do that? Who knows.
There was an enormous amount of pressure on Jonathan’s debut at Dior and the consensus from my IG feed was that, most people were simply ‘whelmed’ by the collection. I wasn’t surprised at the reaction because when stakes are this high for a debut collection, it almost feels anticlimactic when the designer manages to satisfy or defy every single person’s expectations. Also, when was the last time a debut collection managed to tick all the boxes and satisfy all the expectations? Michele could not do it at Valentino, Chiuri could not do it at Dior and Slimane could not do it at Celine (even with the accent gone).
I personally got it. There was a sense of humour in the collection which I really enjoyed (and have always liked about his work). The book totes, for example, were one of my least favourite offerings from Chiuri’s Dior. The fact that he went so literal and had book titles in bright colour-ways in the new tote designs really excited me and it immediately went to my ever-expanding covet list. The collection also referenced Dior’s archives (as is expected for any designer taking over a legacy brand) but they still felt on-brand for him as the clothes were playful in volume, in fabric choice and in its construction.
The bar jacket in the image below is phenomenal and the cargo pants are referencing a Monsieur Dior designed evening gown that I cannot remember the name of, right now.
That’s all I made of it, honestly. Now, whether these clothes will sell the way Arnault wants them to, remains to be seen but so little can be said about a designer’s overall career span based off a single collection. Especially, when we are yet to see his womenswear offerings. Given the mounting workload, the exhausted man in the first video is probably going to be even more exhausted but I have faith in him. Because on a fundamental level, there is a sense of nonchalant seriousness in his designs that feels like a commonality in most great designers. Where the design feels effortless even though, you know the work put in, is anything but.
But you never really know, as the zeitgeist remains random as ever. It also does not help that as a collective, we either support the already established, behemoth brands or constantly seek the next big thing, entirely ignoring the journeymen designers navigating the middle. When a designer finds success or alternatively failure, we are so quick to mythologize the precise reasons behind it. When in reality, no one has a crystal ball that accurately predicts when and why a particular collection will be perceived better than others or for how long a certain designer will stick the course. The variables are arbitrary and while skeptics are emerging after the supposedly ‘whelmed’ collection, I forever root for the exhausted man with a certain kind of sadness in his eyes ;)