For Autumn/Winter 2018, Loewe returned once more to that Parisian bastion of modernism, Maison de l’Unesco. Inside, a juxtaposition between unlikely bedfellows: the minimalist show space was peppered with absurdist neo-dada sculptures by the Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo and flanked by log-burning fireplaces designed by the Victorian architect E W Godwin. Placed on each seat was one of five classic novels – Madame Bovary, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Heart of Darkness and Don Quixote. Printed in their original languages, they were bound in brand new Steven Meisel-campaign imagery and bore Loewe’s clean type – classics, revisited. True to creative director Jonathan Anderson’s meticulous eye, the same can be said of the collection: the house’s trademark buttery calfskin graced giant pockets that swamped a wool suit; intersecting seams ran across simple slips; lace was spliced with leather; disparate garments became one. The opening look, a satin balconette bra transplanted onto a casual houndstooth T-shirt dress finished with a glossy fur hem, fused three discordant personalities in one item: underwear, outerwear, sportswear. Catering for the many women we may want to be in any one day, and all at once, Anderson employed the magic multiplicity with which he has made the Spanish heritage brand so covetable.
Set design: Amy Stickland at Webber. Lighting: Emma Ercolani. Photographic assistant: Fuminori Homma. Styling assistants: Charis Lorraine and Benedetta Baruffi. Set-design assistant: Nienta Nixon. Production: Webber. Post-production: D-Touch Studio.
This story originally featured in the Autumn/Winter 2018 issue of AnOther Magazine which is on sale internationally now.
