First, He Came for Your Closet. Now, Jonathan Anderson Wants in Your Kitchen
Jonathan Anderson’s influence on wardrobes has been seismic. Next, he's coming for the contents of your kitchen cabinets.
Together with fine china company Wedgwood, the 41-year-old’s JW Anderson label unearthed and realized never-used tea dish designs by late Austrian potter Lucie Rie, alongside a batch of colorful, Ancient Greece-inspired mugs.
Stemming from what would've been a collaboration between the British ceramics manufacturer and Lucie Rie back in 1964, the unreleased minimalist cups and saucers now finally get to see the light of day after decades of lying in wait.
An avid collector of Rie's work, Jonathan Anderson's involvement here falls right in line with his namesake business's recent reinvention.
Next to a logo edit, JW Anderson announced it'd move beyond apparel into object design and curation, with stores now featuring not just clothes and accessories, but artisanal home goods like glassware, living textiles, and even foods.
If his humorful, surrealist creations at both JWA and his time at LOEWE were any indicator, it was truly only a matter of time before Anderson'd engage in a more serious attempt at products outside of fashion. Things like that viral tomato-meme clutch, the orchid dress, or the loafer bag all signaled an affinity for the odd, teetering on the borders between art, utility, and craftsmanship.
Newly in-office at the house of Dior, this decision suggests a more distinctive, strategic separation of the Northern Irish multi-disciplinarian's two top-dog gigs. Going forward, his eponymous LVMH-backed brand is, perhaps, best understood as an outlet for more conceptually-minded musings, away from the relative conservatism of what is that same conglomerate's second biggest name.
As for the Lucie Rie tribute, Wedgwood and JW Anderson's traditionally turned collection will be available online and at select stores and retailers from September 19, with its proceeds to benefit the Lucie Rie and Hans Coper Foundation, its archive, digitization, and scholarship initiatives.
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