Blurring the lines between high fashion and street style again, the new JW Anderson x Converse collection is everything we hoped for and more. Their first collaboration, which dropped late last year, was a sparkle-coated take on classic Converse silhouettes. This season is more stripped back. Referring to his latest offering as a “labour of love and obsession” — the Simply_Complex collection has an acute focus on materialisation and thought provoking design.
An asymmetrical iteration of the Thunderbolt has been rendered in beige suede and indigo denim, while the Chuck 70 has been elevated into a formal piece, reimagined as a v sensible brown shoe. “We approached it as a sneaker first but introduced detailed elements and the suede execution that make it a sort of curious version of Chuck,” Jonthan explained via a press release this morning, “ultimately constructing the silhouette as a statement shoe.”
As if that were all, for the accompanying campaign, American filmmaker and photographer Larry Clark has been tapped to lend his gritty realism and effortless cult cool to the collab. Tearing us away to the beaches of Marseille, Clark captures a bunch of bespectacled and brace-faced kids hanging out in their new kicks.
The Simply_Complex collection hits stores on 2 March