Milan Fashion Week Men’s AW23 has been chockablock with buzzy moments, from Alton Mason’s flavorous swagger at DSquared2 (watch here) to the detachable collars, flask totes and pillowy bombers at Prada. But nothing has provoked conversation quite like the beautifully monstrous JW Anderson x Wellipets frog mules.
Shock factor aside, the hype that shrouds the collaboration has got much to do with Wellipet's princely connection: its frog-shaped Wellington boots – the brand's quintessential offering – often adorned the feet of Prince William and Prince Harry during their early years. Seemingly, Princess Diana was a Brothers Grimm fan.
Regardless of whether the move is charged with great meaning or not – is it a nostalgic nod to more stable times, before wince-worthy audiobook excerpts made up the bulk of our Twitter feeds? – the dual-branded slip-on is bang on trend, combining comfy clogs (made fashionable by Bottega Veneta, Adidas x Yeezy and Salehe Bembury x Crocs) with high-fashion eccentricity (recently popularised by Loewe, also helmed by JW Anderson founder and creative director Jonathan Anderson).
Naturally, we're already desperate for a pair, and according to their remarks made on Instagram, so too are trailblazers Sam Smith and Erykah Badu.
The Wellipets x JW Anderson collaboration is set to drop this April in three colourways – green, yellow and blue – prior to the rest of the AW23 collection.
