Jonathan Anderson Joins Forces Again With Alasdair McLellan
TAKE TWO: Jonathan Anderson packed photographer Alasdair McLellan off to Northern Ireland for their second collaboration on the designer’s Workshops line, a series of monthly collaborations between Anderson and a lineup of fellow creatives that he calls “kindred spirits,” the fruits of which are available at a retail space next to the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch, London.
“I love doing [these collaborations] because it’s my micro-project and more about accessibility and the idea of trying to bring a newness of the time in a way that is actually personal to me,” Anderson told WWD. “This shop is an experiment for me, it was always meant to be, we are now embarking on a new year of working with different ceramist, poets, artists, photographers and archives.”
Within this McLellan collaboration are items including T-shirts, key rings, mugs, stickers, puzzles, badges and posters featuring exclusive photographs by him of models and Northern Irish landscapes.
“Alasdair went to Northern Ireland, where I come from, and he shot all the different landmarks that I knew as a kid. The Mourne Mountains, the Giant’s Causeway, the Falls Road…” said Anderson, adding that this was far from McLellan’s first foray into Ireland.
“Alasdair has always been taking pictures in Northern Ireland, he did a lot of pictures of the Troubles, of Falls Road and Shankill — both sides — so it’s really personal,” he said. “In a weird way, 2018 for me is about the brand. There is me, I came from Northern Ireland, I set this brand up 10 years ago and now we’ve turned a massive corner and we now employ 60 people and we’re now kind of doing things backward, in a way, where we’re now putting men’s and women’s and pre-collections into one show, which is what we did eight years ago, and now it’s ready and about time to do it.”
Sounds like an optimistic start to the year. “We are in this amazing moment now, where there is so much opportunity in terms of how retail works,” Anderson continued. “It is about trying to find what the next 10 years is about, not only trying to save the previous 10 years. Expecting to find a new ground.”
There are 39 stockkeeping units in this collection, with prices ranging from two pounds to 100 pounds. They are available now until stocks last at the Shoreditch store and at j-w-anderson.com.
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