October 1, 2022 |
We expect to be wowed at Loewe, which thanks to a series of stellar shows, has a solo dance gold reputation for visual vim. Jonathan Anderson’s mind map for the SS23 collection featured words like “serenity”, “peace”, “clarity” and “precision”.
He was also fascinated by natural things that look fake, taking the striking anthurium flower as his motif. A huge sculpture of the plant dominated the centre of the catwalk and it appeared twisted around the body as a top or covering one bosom on a cutaway mini dress. Anderson crafted a set of arresting silhouettes.
Taylor Russell, the Bones and All actress opened the show in a panniered velvet gown, a shape that, for emphasis, came out in several different colour ways. Little draped dresses fell from jutting wired peaks. Bodies were encased in enamel torsos, painted with pretty flowers – like gypsy watering cans. Little knit polo tops descended into trumpet-skirted mini dresses and every so often a pixelated ‘Minecraft’ trouser and knit came out like a glitch in the machine. As always, the accessories were a talking point. There were puffy mini-mouse court shoes and shoes covered in clusters of quivering deflated balloons – the logical follow-on from last season’s baloon-heeled courts. Alongside that, the new Paseo bag, with its origami folds, made its catwalk debut.
The brand is still working out how to commercialise the anthurium pieces, but catwalk high jinx aside, there was so much to buy and wear – from the cropped A-line waxed jackets to the little shearlings, oversized leather shirt dresses and perfectly cut mannish trousers. From catwalk high jinx to real-life wardrobing, this collection had it all.
Photography courtesy of Loewe.
