Illustrating Menswear Day SS11: JW Anderson

Each season Menswear Day gets stronger and stronger. For SS11 it was particularly exciting to see stalwarts of Savile Row sit comfortably alongside high street regulars and established designers and exciting new talent alike to help cause a sartorial stir or two while collectively flying the flag of menswear. Presentations, catwalk shows and film screenings all celebrated the exciting diversity of menswear design talent which uniquely exists in this capital of ours. Now that the dust begins to settle on the day itself and I've suitably recovered from fashion flu I want to dissect the day. the Going to the shows is a wonderful experience, but looking over catwalk photos afterwards can be a bit mind numbing. So, to help bring the day to life we decided to cover the shows a little differently and enlisted the help of Lauren Macaulay. I first met this talented illustrator wildly sketching on the front row Graduate Fashion Week. As I awkwardly scribbled the odd note or two, Macaulay had managed to pick out each collections key parts on the pages of her sketchbook. Thankfully she agreed to loan her talents and sketchbook to us for Menswear Day.

One of the real standout collections of an eclectic Menswear day was undoubtedly JW Anderson’s SS11 show, which for the first time showed both his menswear and equally desirable womenswear together. The Devoured and I, SS11 collection takes inspiration from three photographers and their view on subcultures in the 1950s through to the 1970s: Danny Lyon, William Gedney and Karl Heinz Weinberger. The driving focul point is youth and a sense of adventure exploring an unknown land. In recent seasons JW Anderson's designs have explored the beautiful transience of youth but none more effectively than here. There is a sense of fragility and wonder throughout the collection and this is best seen in the multi-layering of broken down elements. The combination of these elements is what truly left me excited. I often complain that Spring/Summer collections are overly simple, stripped from the element of dress that interests me most, layering. There were no complaints during this show. Trousers are patch worked and faded, lace doilies adorn t shirts, Liberty prints are bleached out and tulle and florals are borrowed from the girls. As I sat in my seat I marveled at the heady cocktail of prints and textures on display. Thankfully these caught Macaulay's eye as well and her illustrations highlight them far better than my words could describe. We hope you enjoy them...

Illustrations by Lauren Macaulay.