The first thing the eye was drawn to on the Loewe catwalk were the shoes. Here came trainers that sprouted with real-life greenery. Jonathan Anderson and his team have spent the past 20 days growing garments and accessories Created with Paula Ulargui Escalona, a young Spanish designer who has dedicated her practice to growing plants within fabric, Anderson perforated trackies, handsome coats and jeans with chia plants and catswort. These require regular watering and will continue to grow if treated properly.
After defining an altered real world with his last Loewe men’s collection, Anderson set out to meet nature and technology; toying with our perceptions of the real and the digitally reproduced. Like said growing garments; artificially made, but with technological advancements, are able to breathe like living organisms. Or classic menswear staples – polo shirts, skinny jeans, wrinkled office shirts – treated in mossy and dewy finishes as if they emerged from soil.
Against a stark white slope, models emerged wearing facemasks and coats dotted with screens that projected scenes of fish swimming, birds soaring and humans mid-snog. Post-show, Anderson spoke of how our head is always buried into our phones and laptops, now his Loewe troupe became the screens. This sense of intergrated tech was also convayed via an opening procession of leather trench coats, which had iPhones, charging cables and earphones molded within their exterior.
Anderson achieves all this amongst a slew of attractively sellable pieces, like round bombers in puffy proportions, branded sports leggings and new iterations of classic Loewe bags. He’s able to blend the real and the fake, the hand-made and the natural, with ease and innovation – enticing new perspectives and celementing his place as one of our industry’s greatest progressives.
Photography courtesy of Loewe.
