Pushing things to the extreme is part and parcel of the JW Anderson experience. Whether he’s engorging bright, reflective chains to sit atop his clunky loafers, indulging in the hyperreal, watercolour fantasies of Pol Anglada or even bringing the wonderful world of knitting to Harry Styles fans across the globe, his finger is always on the pulse on some mad, childish idea we all wish we thought of first. But for FW22, however, the award-winning designer has decided that what’s really in this season, besides outerwear silhouettes with hulking shoulders, is indulgently losing your marbles. 

This season’s collection kicked off with an austere coat-dress that coupled itself with bare legs and a famed brand motif – the elephant – blown up in bold, orange proportions and tucked firmly under the armpit. It’s a culmination of dressed-down genius (sans pyjamas) you’re as likely to see on a high-high-fashion school run as you are on the catwalk, but only if you dropped a tab of acid with your breakfast first. Next, Anderson fashioned podgy pigeons into handheld clutches, before attacking footie kits with lashings of glitter and constructing entire rainbow crop tops out of office lanyards.

It’s opulent Covid-wear, you see. A camp exploration of crafty domestic life and the  ‘dressing down’ we all grew so accustomed to when the virus first stopped us in our tracks. But instead of sofa-bound athleisure, his silver unitards give a nudge-wink to the return of 90s indie, and those nights that welcome in the morning – knit jumpers explode with colourful, interlocking chains while piped skirts and shoulder straps get tubular, wrapping the body in a veil of curvaceous, space-tinged glamour. The takeaway? Despite difficulties, fun reigns supreme.