Anderson Pops Up

Jonathan Anderson’s own label JW Anderson is launching its first pop-up store with an exhibition in China on Wednesday. The pop-up will run till Dec. 16.

The store is located on the fourth-floor atrium in SKP Beijing, China’s shopping “mecca.” It’s ranked only second to Harrods in terms of luxury sales performance worldwide, according to GlobalData. The store design features original artworks by Anderson’s frequent collaborator Pol Anglada, as well as an excerpt from Don Juan by Lord Byron.

Besides men’s wear, women’s wear, small leather goods, accessories, the brand offers two pop-up exclusive items. They are a unique style of Converse x JW Anderson sneakers with a rainbow color shoelace, and a cap bag in beige, light gray and white colorway.

Half of the space is allocated to an interactive exhibition, displaying items and art that inspire Anderson. For example, a veritable jungle of hanging, oversize sweaters there was first shown as part of the Disobedient Bodies exhibition curated by Anderson in 2017 at the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in Yorkshire.

Last week, Anderson, who is also the creative director of Loewe, threw a big party in Beijing to celebrate the launch of the William De Morgan capsule collection, despite backlashes against a stripe workwear jacket from the capsule on social media. It appeared that the jacket resembles a concentration camp uniform worn by victims of the Holocaust. Loewe apologized on Instagram and removed the product from sale afterward.

Regardless, Anderson has been instrumental in reviving Loewe since 2013, and items such as the Puzzle bag and the Hammock bag have enjoyed great popularity in China for a long time.

Riding on the momentum, his own label is also expanding steadily in the country. The brand added a Chinese language site this January and aims to launch its WeChat miniprogram in 2020. JW Anderson has 24 stockists in the Greater China region. — TIANWEI ZHANG