At JW Anderson, Shape-shifting Minis & Kooky, Loopy Knits

There’s no denying Jonathan Anderson’s shape-shifting abilities. The designer, season after season, transforms everyday, mundane garments by completely rethinking their shapes and silhouettes. The Loewe creative director subverts the norm every single time—and his JW Anderson spring 2025 collection was no exception to this rule.

The core of the collection was injected with a hint of Anderson’s always-present humor, plus an ironic take on femininity. Think: minidresses with extreme, bell-flare skirts, cream puff-like hemlines, and sweaters cut into billowing strips with a wide knit band holding it all together. Models wore sculptural ankle boots left open in the back and minimal makeup. Extreme takes on wardrobe basics were everywhere—either blown up and made oversize or bearing a chunky, shrunken look. The Irish designer wrote in his show notes that he was mulling “setting strict boundaries as a liberating act: a design quest rooted in the materiality of what clothing is made for, in a reduced library of materials,” while creating this collection.

Knitwear was the star of the show, with lots of options touching on the surreally feminine side of the designer’s aesthetic. (Anderson described the look as a callback to early JW Anderson collections in his show notes.) The classic sweater dress was made bigger, chunkier, and totally distorted. Blooms of knitted loops hung from mini sweater dresses like petals from a strange and enchanting garden. Another sweater dress came in giant strips of knitted material woven in a crosshatched pattern. For a designer who has often referenced Internet culture in his clothes, it could have been one big hashtag, deconstructed and worked back into the wardrobe.

On the more wearable side of the collection, there were little black dresses with drop-waist flare skirts and deep V-necks set with bits and bobs of lace. Bulky satin jackets with contrasting collars and chunky belts, newspaper print tops, and sweater dresses with little knots tied below the knees were all for the JW Anderson fans who’ll don the brand in the real world.

But the flared, structural miniskirt was the most inventive shape of the collection. One can always count on Anderson to deliver the new silhouette of the season, and this one definitely feels fresh. These miniskirts are so short, stiff, and sculpted that they almost look like wings. Sometimes, the key to a revitalization in fashion means rethinking a classic to sublimely bizarre extremes.