Unless it boasts his logo, a JW Anderson piece is not always instantly recognisable. But that’s because the pieces themselves are never quite what they seem. Only when the illusion is revealed—a sleeveless grey zip-up sweatshirt is actually a printed silk mini dress—is it clear that it could only be the work of the ever-clever Jonathan Anderson.

For Spring/Summer 2025, the Irish designer crafted his latest offering from a reduced toolbox. Part of an exercise in “boundaries”, as per the shownotes, the collection featured all the trademark mischief of his past work but with a refined palette of cashmere, leather, silk and sequins—a detail that could’ve easily been missed, given the sheer variety that was still on show.

Trompe-l’œil fabrics, gravity-defying skater skirts, and shredded knits resembling window-lined skyscrapers maintained a level of humour to be expected of the brand, but there was a sobriety to the collection that stemmed from the designer’s projections of the industry as a whole.

“I think where we are today is that there needs to be a kind of narrowing of things while the world is transitioning,” he said after the show. “I think fashion needs to kind of refocus somehow because we’re in a moment where we, the industry, have to look at ourselves.”

While he didn’t go into specifics, many will understand this shift he’s talking about. However, he assured that this collection isn’t about resigning to this uncertainty but bracing for a much-needed change. “It’s more like this idea of starting from a blank page,” he said. Where is the next decade going, and how do we work with it?”

As a designer who always brings a heightened level of conceptual intrigue to his collections, which typically urges us to consider what’s been on his mind while playfully subverting conventional aesthetics, it’s novel for Anderson to limit himself in such a way. Perhaps, like all those other times, though, he’s seeing something before we are.