March 7, 2026 |
It was punchy, playful and zinged with colour: The Loewe boys, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, are bringing real joy to serious luxury.
The Spanish leather house thrilled with fun and ideas. The designers are clearly having a riot. Craft is at the heart of it all, with the designers using a mix of old-school and high-tech techniques to achieve something new. McCullough said the pair had been questioning how to do craft with the most-up-to date materials using the newest technology.
Onto a Minion-yellow catwalk they sent out little lingerie slip dresses that appeared dipped in yellow, red or blue latex. They were actually 3D-printed. Jeans were similarly coated whilst sporty parkas for men and women came with inflatable panels and exaggerated sou’wester shaped hoods. Leather macs had inflatable pocket flaps and blow-up gingham skirts and scarves were worn with tailored coats.
Loewe is a leather house famed for its devotion to craft and for AW26, shearling was the start. What the Loewe atelier can do with is a marvel to behold. What looked like jumbo cord trousers, was, in fact, shaved shearling, whilst the shearling on hourglass moulded coats and jackets was shaved, dyed and brushed to create a dégradé of texture from smooth to shaggy. Elsewhere leather strings were knotted into a striking fringed coat and lengths of beaded rope was looped into party dresses. Shaggy knitted mini-dresses with trailing textured trains added to the fun. McCullough singled out the sculpted, hooded leather jackets as summing up their highly crafted future facing approach. “They were skived down to feather-thin leather and fused so that they almost looked like they were molded in a car factory,” he said. “To us, it’s almost like the highest level of craft when you erase the hand itself.”
The fun didn’t stop with the clothes. Swim shoes and visors fluffy shearling mits and even Loewe wellies are all part of the AW26 offer. The bags also had a playful edge. A black Amazona bag came with a bright yellow interior and an animal charm, to match plushy toy animal sculptures of artist Cosima von Bonin, which were dotted around the show space. Who’s coming out to play?
Photography courtesy of Loewe.
