You know rugby, right? You know the Haka, right? You remember the Ireland v New Zealand test in 1989 in Lansdowne Road, right?
The Irish captain that day was Willie Anderson. As the Haka played, Willie marched the Irish troops forward to face down the All Blacks. It was a daring, unconventional thing to do and it has been repeated through the years by various teams.
Willie’s son Jonathan is a fashion designer. LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) is a fashion and luxury conglomerate which acquires stakes and interest in luxury fashion brands. They have recently acquired a stake in JW Anderson’s eponymous label. In return for the reported stake, JW was made creative director at Loewe, another company in the LVMH stable. Loewe specialise in leather goods and are based in Madrid. Not bad for a boy from The Loup, County Derry.
His own label, JW Anderson, goes from strength to strength. As a designer, Jonathan has the same unconventional approach his father had as a rugby captain. He plays around with the conventional lines of design; he blurs the line between male and female clothing and creates clothes for a certain attitude rather than a person and he is bold and daring like his father.
The resulting collections have made him a firm favourite with influential people in fashion, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour. His take on androgyny means items like a “couples” tee shirt are unique and interesting and again break down the barriers between the sexes.
The financial details of the deal between Anderson and LVMH were not disclosed at the time, so instead you can visit his site here and we can enjoy this again…
Video via docathail image via J.W. Anderson.
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