March 3, 2017 |
This morning began in the way that all good mornings should: in pitch black darkness. You know us, we refuse to be fully lit until at least 12pm. Thankfully though, in this case at least, the lights did come on – for how else would we have seen Jonathan Anderson’s latest collection for the house of Loewe? And why, for that matter, would we starve our eyes of such beauty? For AW17, this was about women. To which you might rightly say: aren’t all womenswear collections about women? But this was specifically about a vision of modern elegance – a take on nostalgic ladylike dressing. Or, as Dominic put it: “a bit like a selection box of being a fab woman.” This nostalgia came through in this play on the traditional feminine silhouette – the tailored, almost bar, jackets that cinched and flared at the waist, worn here with a calf-length skirt beneath, or the puff sleeves that punctuated the dresses throughout. That full-on off-the-shoulder gown moment, the way the hemlines fell below the knee, an emphasis on the waist that lurked throughout. But here, tradition was warped by Jonathan’s incredible knack of bringing all these disparate fabrics and details together into one unified whole – coloured leathers, checker-box ruffles, embroidered suedes, some shiny eighties lame, Loewe-branded fairisle knits. It lended the collection, particularly those ladylike shapes re-created in leather, something uneasy. To borrow from the release: “where will she go next? how will she survive?” Mention must go to, of course, the accessories. Many proclamations of want for those peaked sun hats on exiting the venue, so too those small, almost austere shoulder bags that fastened with a buckle. And for Phoebe? Well, she’s obviously going for the cat bag. It’s like it was made just for her. So much so, is it really stealing if it somehow disappears from backstage?
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
