It’s easy to term JW Anderson’s new Men’s AW22 and Women’s PF2022 collections as “weird.” But that would be exactly what creative director Jonathan Anderson would ask for.

In a year that’s seeing several houses embrace the quirky and the odd, JW Anderson goes for the ridiculous. Creating a melange of colors and shapes that shouldn’t go together, twisting conventional silhouettes with unexpected and downright ludicrous enhancements and features, it’s all part of the grand party that is this new collection.

It’s as silly as creating a sleeveless top out of rubber bands, or pairing a swan-themed cropped sweater with knotted leather pants.  Neckerchief hems, polos in lamé, oversized turtleneck dresses, chain-link sweaters, eyes on dresses, these are just some of the features that populate the new line.

The masculine and feminine shapes and items often blend into each other, creating a lack of distinction that allows them to exist in one space as one unit of a whole. They’re united in the silliness of it all.

Colors and patterns abound as far as the eye can see, from hot pinks, neon pastels, muted browns, denims, animal-print, wool, knits, all kinds of makes, even colorful metallic hot pants.

The cactus makes a recurring appearance as a prominent motif throughout the patterns, imagery, and accessories of the collection, with many similarly-shaped handbags being carried around, with colorful pieces specifically chosen to accompany muted tones.

There’s no limitation of gender or traditional norms of “fashion” and “clothing” in this particular outing, exploring not only androgynous silhouettes, but also those that completely veer on totally wild areas of the spectrum, disregarding a need to even categorize any of these styles to particular shapes or body types.

The beauty of the collection is in its absolute ability to fly in the face of everything a traditionalist would know. In today’s day and age, there’s nobody really playing it safe to maintain their spot at the top, especially when creativity and curiosity have started dominating the fashion world rhetoric. The JW Anderson collection aims to buck a measured level of that by going completely balls to the wall in a refreshing take on a year gone wild through the parties that could’ve been in 2022.

While the pandemic has nixed the opportunity to experience a full Milan unveiling, one could only imagine how big of a show, an absolute rager of an event this could’ve had the potential of being. The clothing in this collection is an expression of the manic risk-taker inside humans who enjoy style, and they’re the vessel to bring them out in just a cavalcade of color.

Watch the full JW Anderson Men’s AW22 and Women’s PF22 collections below: