When asked to describe his A/W 16 Loewe collection in a song, Jonathan Anderson selected Jammin’ by Bob Marley. It’s a song you can’t listen to without feeling happy - a tribute to good times with friends and hanging out with loved ones. He’d included a painted sunrise print on bags to hammer home the optimistic vibes. It seems a long way from the chilliness and intellectual loftiness that can underpin his collections for his namesake label - there, his clothes are intriguing, impressive, innovative, but sometimes not inviting. You think of them, often, as something to analyse rather than something to wear. Indeed, Anderson often feels like a designer of ‘fashion’ more than clothes. That’s part of the reason he’s been so successful - he moves the conversation forward. He treads new ground. It’s a different story over at Loewe though. There’s a warmth to his work there. It’s about a wardrobe, about hardworking pieces that, bringing it back to Marley, can become like friends and companions - clothes you rely on day in, day out. That’s why changes from season to season are subtle, and the focus remains on the items themselves rather than some overriding concept. It’s about great jackets, covetable footwear, tactile leathers, sumptuous silk shirts and the little bits and bobs that make getting dressed fun; key chains, jewellery, pouches - Anderson’s good at all that ‘stuff’.
That said, this season wasn’t entirely without theme. The interplay between the man-made world - machines, technology and so on - and the natural world has sparked a lot of designers’ imaginations this season. How could it not, given all these conversations about the passage of time and the pace of fashion? Anderson’s musings had given way to earthly tones and appealing mushroom motifs than ran through the collection. To me, it read like a suggestion of authenticity. There’s something tender about a nod to natural beauty, especially in the context of this high fashion obsession with product and the new. It was a direct contrast to the robots and cartoons of S/S 16, but it felt right, especially given Loewe’s Spanish roots and leather expertise - their forte is, in someways, the traditional and the old-school.
It’s apt that in order to view this presentation we stepped into an all-enveloping window-less cave-like environment, complete with sculptures and strange modular elements created by M/M Paris, when arriving at the Loewe St Sulpice space. Once inside, we were shut off from everything else - from the hubbub of the street, from the sunshine and rain, from the Parisian crowds. One attendee joked that it was like being in Ikea - you lost track of the day passing, of what time it was, of what was going on in the outside world. But that sense of being in a separate world suits Loewe today and Anderson’s work in general. He’s creating a universe there - one that is consistent and built with a 360 approach in mind that encompasses product, language, collaborators and motifs. It has an unmistakable voice - once you step in, you couldn’t be anywhere else.
