October 1, 2016 |
“Luke, I am you father”. Okay, so maybe not. But that first look at Loewe’s SS17 show today – that cream coloured smock thing with big puffy sleeves for some reason brings to mind Star Wars. Blame it on the early start time and lack of coffee. Anyway, moving on swiftly, the Loewe SS17 collection is a celebration of craft, which seems rather apt what with the launch of their craft prize earlier this year. Fabrics are natural, raw, with drawstrings creating loosely pleated layers of volume on the body. Short, shredded fringe and exposed raw seams, as well as long gowns of cotton patchwork add a sense of homeliness to this, which underscores the craft element, giving a sense of this being made in someones kitchen back home on the prairie, the prairie aspect coming through further in handkerchief hemmed cheese cloth and highly button collarless jackets. To paraphrase the show notes, this is an exercise in “past, present and future colliding in highly sensual, organic clothes, brimming with examples of extreme workmanship and a sense of craft so optimised it seems to vanish”. Or as we like to call it, free-range fashion. Well no one likes a battery farm chicken do they.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
