Loewe debuted their new Men’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection in Paris last week, the regular stomping grounds for the likes of HBO’s latest mini-series muses. In a year of shows that put the emphasis on spectacle, Jonathan Anderson gracefully breaks through that noise with his newest Men’s collection for Loewe, inviting the audience to be reverent of material and revel in artistry. In a time where more is more, Loewe instead shows its audience the power of reduction.
There is a push and pull between the inherent permanence of materials used by the Old Masters and the iconography of the stories they told- grand stories of angel’s wings and devilish eyes (as seen on the runway with colored contacts and dainty feather-like appendages). In collaboration with Contemporary artist Julien Nguyen (b. 1990), the collection’s materials mirror those referenced in the large-scale digital artworks seen at the show. Nguyen’s work is often a head-on collision between classic art history and modern fiction, making him the perfect muse for the casual surrealism Anderson was trying to achieve in his reductionist act.
This sense of reinvented fantasy is accentuated by its over-exaggerated silhouettes, while the drapery of leather captures movement in a way that seems to defy gravity. However, none of this feels overdone because of the care taken in the styling. A hand draped out of the plunging neckline of a coat, exposed legs paired with a puzzle tote here, a draped boot there. That push and pull of minimalism and expressionism is a perfect balance between the old and the new.
Multiple tops feature exposed backs similar to hospital gowns, but the vellum material stays rigid like a paper doll. Watching the look walk down the runway invoked a feeling of vulnerability, seeing the model move beneath the surface of a still piece. Jonathan Anderson is aware of this lack of practicality, stating that he hopes we are entering a period where fashion shows are “about being uncomfortable in design” and that “we are trying to find something new.” This experimental playground paid off time and time again as I found myself entranced by the movement and silhouettes these materials created.
The steel jacket, in particular, handcrafted in collaboration with metal artist Elie Hersch, was one of my personal favorite moments of the show. In my hometown, there is a bronze sculpture of a barefoot woman and her coat next to her, standing empty, that sits outside the Nelson Atkins Museum. The coat always intrigued me more than the pieces in the museum because I find myself obsessed with its supposed suspension in time. Hersch’s jacket, paired simply with silk shorts and leather boots, reminded me of that statue, its curves and bends abnormally fixated in a singular moment, begging to be remembered.
Loewe is a label that has become associated with experimental surrealism since Jonathan Anderson took the helm of the Spanish fashion house in 2013, and this show is a wonderful continuation of that experimentation, exhibiting that “less is more, but in a new way,” and I personally cannot wait to see what is next.
Words and Graphic by Anna McGregor