Frederick Anderson titled his fall 2023 collection “Renaissance.”
Like the time period, or the Beyoncé album? You may be asking yourselves. “Well, both!” He answered backstage with a laugh before turning more solemn: “It’s my fifth anniversary, and it’s been a tough five years, so now this is my renaissance of going through the dark ages and into enlightenment.”
But Anderson has also been spending a lot of time in Europe, he said, so he inevitably found inspiration in its history. Drape was an overarching theme of this collection, something he explored with lustrous raffia gathered delicately in sleeves or bunched up and tacked in elegantly deflated bubble hems, and with airy silk crepes and chiffons draped loosely and with intention. A reduced color palette grounded in black and white with violet accents and some gold and blue enabled Anderson to make cut the focal point of his lineup. Gold embroidered laces, as well as shiny jacquards and his signature alpaca mohair knits rounded up the assortment and provided texture. And while Anderson’s hand tends to lean more evening, some of his proposals here would serve a daywear wardrobe well. Much has changed in the world of “day-to-night,” after all, and Anderson seems to understand what his customer looks at him for in this space.
To continue his expansion and to look ahead after this renaissance, the designer also turned his eye to menswear, offering a range of looks in the same vein as his womenswear: Sexy, confident, and unafraid to go all out.
“We always borrow from the past, but we don’t live there, so how do we push ourselves forward?” He asked while describing his inspiration. Fall saw Anderson distill his learnings from the past—both from his own personal history and the world’s—in order to move forward. No better mindset to kick-off the next five years than to be determined to look ahead while being conscious of where he’s been.
