“It was almost like going back to university,” says Jonathan Anderson of creating the costumes for Luca Guadagnino’s film Queer. The creative director of Loewe and founder of his own label JW Anderson, is recounting the thrill of being on set for the adaptation of William S Burroughs’ unfinished autobiographical novella at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. “If you were to explain to a child what it was like to work in cinema, it would be being on that set. It was amazing,” he says of the studios used by Federico Fellini.
Anderson, speaking from his office in London and intermittently bathed in the glow of wintry sunshine through the Google Teams screen, is on cracking form. His brain cavorts around topics, whether recounting sourcing 1950s vintage pieces for Queer, set in Mexico City, or his theories about the relationship twists and turns between its two central characters William Lee and Eugene Allerton, compellingly played by Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey. He often closes his eyes when completing a train of thought. Or he twists his hair into a spike.
It is an interesting time to talk to Anderson. First, because Queer, an adventurous woozy romp rammed with sex and surrealism looks sensational, and tops off a stellar year for the designer; this week he won designer of the year for a second time in a row at The Fashion Awards in London, in May he was honorary chair of the Met Ball in New York, was named in Time’s 100 most influential people of 2024 and his first costume design work was seen in Guadagnino’s tennis-themed film Challengers, starring Zendaya. And secondly, because since the summer rumours have persisted surrounding Anderson’s future at Loewe, and whether he is leaving to take up a role at another, bigger, fashion house.
Anderson says that he balanced all this by working very far in advance on his designs at Loewe so he could fully immerse himself in Queer. The first time in his 11-year tenure at the brand that he had really stood back.
Despite some similarities between film and fashion — “when I do a show for my own brand or Loewe it is very much about narrative and storytelling” — he enjoyed not being the boss. “My goal [as costume designer] is to ensure that Luca makes his greatest film. It’s very different to what I do at Loewe, where everyone else has to make me happy.” Asked which is more stressful, a fashion show or a film set, he immediately says, in a sort of stage whisper “oh a fashion show”.
The designer and director first met because Guadagnino had been following Anderson’s work for JW Anderson — founded in 2008 — from the start. Though Anderson is hazy on the exact timing of their first meeting, he says the spark was instant. “We had very similar interests in art and viewpoints on fashion.”
Speaking earlier this year, Guadagnino put it more dramatically. “Bertolucci said that when Stravinsky played “The Rite of Spring”, things changed forever. When I saw his JW Anderson collection, it was a watershed moment.” The pair will work on several projects going forward Anderson said. “Sometimes you can be intimidated by the creative process. I find Luca has this amazing thing where he allows you freedom to creatively input into a project that is his, and he encourages you to go for it, to take risks.”
Fashion designers creating clothing for film is not new. Take Yves Saint Laurent’s costumes for Belle de Jour or Givenchy’s for Breakfast at Tiffany’s through to Prada working on The Great Gatsby and Romeo & Juliet. In most cases, star designers are not responsible for every character’s outfit, though Anderson, in both films, dressed the entire cast. “Luca wanted a 360 vision,” says Anderson. “I think it is just as important that the prostitute in the background looks as interesting as what is happening in the foreground. With Luca, it is about every type of nuance, and especially in Queer because everything is so painterly, and you’re trying to work out what is real, what is not.”
Guadagnino’s films have always had memorable wardrobes. Raf Simons created the clothing for Tilda Swinton for I Am Love and A Bigger Splash during his tenures at Jil Sander and Dior respectively. Meanwhile the skimpy shorts, Talking Heads T-shirts and loose Oxford shirts of Call Me By Your Name prompted countless menswear conversations.
The clothing in Queer which tells the story of an ex-pat drug addict’s preoccupation with a younger man whom he brings on a journey to track down yagé (the hallucinogen ayahuasca) is no less memorable. Anderson looked to various images of Burroughs — there’s a photo of the author with Patti Smith from 1995 by Allen Ginsberg where Burroughs is wearing a denim shirt and patterned tie reminiscent of clothing in the final scenes of Queer. References to the book include a centipede necklace, created by Loewe, that nods to Lee under the influence of peyote suggesting that men are “changing into centipedes.” Artists Glyn Philpot, Michaël Borremans (who has a small role in the film) and Francis Alÿs were referenced for detail and colour.
Anderson and Guadagnino share an ability to take a breadth of cultural references and use them to create something startling and new. A case in point is a scene set against a brooding night-time backdrop in Mexico City where Craig and Starkey’s characters first meet, featuring the glorious hum of “Come as You Are” by Nirvana. Here Anderson’s costumes for Craig — an undone looking, off-white linen suit and grey fedora — and Starkey — a close-to-the-body patterned knit and wire-rimmed glasses — are stylistically contrasting, offering subtle clues to the audience about the way these men might move differently through the world.
The way clothes sit on the body became integral to Anderson’s vision — Burroughs often undid the top button of a jacket and left the bottom ones done up. Anderson wanted Craig’s character Lee — a drug addict — to wear clothes that gave off the impression that they were almost hanging off a carcass. Playing on the addiction theme, Anderson says the film opens with Lee in a “cocaine white” 1950s shirt, but as he becomes darker and more obsessive, his wardrobe evolves into “a dégradé of the colours of heroin.”
Meanwhile, Starkey’s Allerton has a neat veteran physique emphasised through garments that find a midpoint point between uptight-preppy — pleated slacks and sports blousons — and sexually alluring. A key reference for both Anderson and Guadagnino was American photographer George Platt Lynes, whose work often depicted rather beautiful looking men. “The idea of the perfect T-shirt became a mission for me,” says Anderson. “I had this amazing image by Platt Lynes, and I needed to find an original 1950s T-shirt that hugs the body in a way that is painterly.”
Before turning to fashion, Anderson studied drama at The Juilliard School in New York, but ended up transferring to the costume department. He was drawn to the work of costume designer Sandy Powell — especially her Elizabeth I played by Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love. So, on being appointed at Loewe in 2013, he sought to “turn [it] into a cultural brand not a luxury brand, it was a subtlety in words, but ultimately it was fundamental,” he recalls. “For me the role of the fashion designer had changed in the zeitgeist. It was not one medium, ultimately.”
It has brought the brand creative credibility and a very specific taste level that means the likes of Powell or Craig want to be part of the Loewe “family”. The recent autumn/winter 2024 men’s ad campaign for Loewe starring Craig happened after the film — Anderson says they were joking about stars in campaigns on the set of Queer and that he then proposed to Craig they shoot something where he looked a bit like Iggy Pop. The image of Craig with floppy hair, yellow-tinted sunglasses and a borderline Christmas jumper exploded across the internet. GQ referred to it as part of Craig’s “freaky era.”
Similarly headline-grabbing was last year’s Loewe ad featuring Dame Maggie Smith clutching Anderson’s hit Puzzle bag. “It really summarises everything I wanted from Loewe. I think she was so gracious to take a risk on doing it. I’ll never forget that one,” he smiles. “When I look back at Loewe, that will be the thing, you know.”
As we wrap up our conversation, I ask what next year will bring amid industry rumours and Anderson smiles. “What do I say? That 2025 will be a lot of work. Lots of work. You know, I love what I’ve done. I love what I’ve achieved and I will keep going. Keep calm and carry on!”
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