Jonathan Anderson is not one to sit on his laurels.
As creative director of the House of Dior, Anderson is responsible for the brand’s entire lineup, including womenswear, menswear, couture, and accessories. It’s a feat few have managed, aside from legends like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Dior himself.
As Harper’s Bazaar reports, in June, the designer charmed the industry with his highly anticipated debut for Dior Homme, but it also left everyone wondering what would become of the brand that bears his own name.
Over the past five years, Anderson homed in on surrealism at Loewe, exemplified in pieces like a dress where swaths of fabric appear to squeeze cherry-red balloons to their bursting point. But there’s also an elegance to it—and the boost that comes with the financial backing of LVMH. Despite objective overlap with Loewe, JW Anderson the brand has long hosted the designer’s more experimental notions—like hoodies made of what looked like Play-Doh in Spring 2024 or the polarizing pigeon clutch.
Amid the past few months’ speculation, JW Anderson kept our interests piqued, hinting at rebrand via Instagram posts about a New Beginnings collection. Throughout June, the account released a series of carousels that conjure a fully fledged lifestyle brand—and one that looks a lot like the Loewe of the past few years.
Now, the designer has revealed that he is relaunching his eponymous brand JW Anderson – but with a brand new concept. “If I don’t feel like the underdog, I will never work. So, in a weird way, we had to rebuild a platform to become the underdog again,” Anderson told Business of Fashion.
When the website launches on September 1, there will be around 560 items available, and once something sells out, it’s gone. The label will stock a range of items from garden tools to jewelry, offering “cabinets of curiosities” that each have a unique story.
The newly released JW Anderson images show a polished whimsy somewhere imminent in these new items wrought with luxury, like patterned silk shorts and ruffled suede flats next to the brand’s signature Loafer bag, released just last year. First, there’s been a literal shift to reveal more decadent packaging and a slimmed down new logo—the W now sits in line with the J, where it was previously raised. Then, there’s the introduction of new categories. Anderson has long touted an affinity for his garden. Early imagery depicts antique-looking shovels and gardening forks that bear the JW Anderson logo.
The imagery from the lookbook depicts friends of the brand like director Luca Guadagnino, artist Mary Stephenson, musician Oliver Sim, and actor Joe Alwyn wearing Anderson’s new Resort 2026 collection. Interspersed throughout ensembles that champion the brand’s signatures is a menagerie of sourced objects like Jason Mosseri’s Hope Spring Chairs, antique gardening tools, handmade Murano glassware, and more.
The result declares a new chapter for JW Anderson.
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Photo Credit: Loredana Sangiuliano / Shutterstock.com