JW Anderson Subverts Gender Binaries Once More By Going Co-Ed With His Shows

“When it comes to my relationship with gender and fashion, as much as it keeps coming up as a bloody trend, it’s really not a trend,” Jonathan Anderson told me earlier this year. “I just believe that garments are for garments sake. Anyone can wear them.” Such a sentiment has now translated in how he will present his collections: from February, his JW Anderson men’s and women’s shows will be combined and shown during London’s womenswear fashion week.

The decision makes perfect sense – not only is it strategically in line with the rest of the industry (only last week Balenciaga announced the same decision, while brands like Burberry and Gucci have eschewed the binary division for seasons now), but Anderson’s designs have always subverted traditional gender tropes. His early menswear collections incorporated the likes of floral organza suiting and frilly shorts; his womenswear played with a masculine sort of femininity with boyish knitwear, or aprons worn over tracksuits.

While that side of his aesthetic has become less explicit over the years (and, accordingly, increasingly commercially viable), his designs still retain those same tenets of subversion. “I think that was my whole thing when I started doing clothing,” he says. “I never believed that there was a binary – but it wasn’t as though I was playing around with costume, it was just about proportion.”

That being said, the brand’s official statement simply decrees that “The decision to consolidate and transform its fashion show is to align with the brand's new strategy, to shorten the traditional gap between the runway moment and retail availability.” Perhaps it’s just another savvy commercial move from one of fashion’s savviest designers – but, as ever with Anderson, it’s likely not to be as simple as it seems.