A 17-piece collection fronted by Little Simz and Joe Alwyn turns pub culture into genuine fashion currency.
Jonathan Anderson has pulled off something genuinely unexpected: he’s made Guinness merch desirable. The second season of his collaboration with the Irish stout giant drops the novelty angle entirely and replaces it with something far more coherent and covetable. Where season one flirted with the kitsch of beer branding, this expansion goes all in on pub aesthetics as a legitimate design language, complete with tailored pieces that belong in a wardrobe for reasons beyond the logo.
The 17-piece capsule reads less like a corporate tie-up and more like Anderson translating an entire subculture into his design vocabulary. Little Simz and Joe Alwyn’s involvement signals intent, too, both artists carrying weight outside their respective spheres and communicating that this isn’t a vanity project. The collection balances straightforward branded pieces with more oblique references to pub architecture and working-class British style, letting the collaboration feel like a genuine aesthetic discovery rather than a brand forcing itself into fashion.
What’s remarkable is that this keeps selling out. Fashion collaborations with non-fashion brands usually arrive with built-in obsolescence, the kind of limited-edition kitschy thing you wear once for the story. Anderson’s approach treats Guinness not as a celebrity cameo but as a complete visual world with its own design language worth exploring. The fact that pieces keep disappearing from shelves suggests audiences get it too. Beer merch, it turns out, doesn’t have to be a joke when the designer takes it seriously.
