London Fashion Week highlights: J. W. Anderson

The forward-grabbing young Irish designer impresses the fashion set a lot. But this time round, there was something stopping the Louboutin-clad fashion collective from an all-out applause.

Anderson – the designer who put men in dresses last season – furthered his pared-back, form-morphing aesthetic for his a/w 2014 womenswear collection. Femininity was sparse, as was colour. Thick, nomadic-ready fabrics in desert colours were draped and shaped to create volume in sack-like proportions. The finish was primitive and enticing; technical mastery clear.

Soft tailoring cuddled by obi belts, fluted calf-length skirts and funnelled necklines engaged with the figure and had a tribal quality that was interesting. Anderson's mastery of manipulation of fabric further mesmerised with clever hints at modern femininity - bralets and bodices sat over thick wads of woollen dresses - yet the overwhelming feeling was of neutral sexuality.

Womanhood was there, just played down. But there was something refreshing about this. Expressions of womanhood needn't be skin, hips and bosom.

Anderson's organic desert nomad is an interesting alternative.

J.W. Anderson AW14, backstage (Sam Wilson, British Fashion Council)

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