While some designers naturally called it this season, Jonathan Anderson didn’t go all out. Her spring-summer collection for Loewe brings new meaning to the girls at the gallery. Each piece looks like it belongs to a museum, and Anderson is familiar with the art world.
He again brought in the fashion to design the wallpaper that came with this season’s invitation to give audience a complete experience. Instead of an in-person parade, the Loewe team sent out invitations that inspired “attendees” to take part in the creativity, titling the collection “Show-in-a-Box”. This box being a package sent to “participants” consisting of scissors, powdered glue, a paintbrush and rolls of Hamilton wallpaper. Expect these deliveries to roam your Instagram feeds shortly.
Anderson approached this collection like a historian. “I liked this idea of how we were really going to explore the art of fashion,” he says in the brand’s collection video, a COVID-19 virtual substitute for a formal stroll.
And his research shows it. Not only does he note American ceramist George E. Ohr as an inspiration for new bag shapes, but it’s clear that Anderson bridges the gaps between eras. The collection borrows from Victorian-era couture with its whimsical take on boning and movement mixed with a puff of Rei Kawakubo’s undulating forms in a playful play of exaggeration. Hamilton’s wallpaper has transformed into a two-piece. The latticework was dotted with floral appliqués, the shoulders were puffed up, and the knits were tied.
With time on his hands in isolation, Anderson pointed out, “This collection glorifies the hand embroidered, the hand woven, the handmade.” A structured basket cape in woven leather is both avant-garde and reminiscent of an Ikea pendant light (we mean this as a compliment). He describes it more expressively, addressing silhouette as “that idea of leather craftsmanship that somehow controls silk or becomes more like poetic armor.” And protecting yourself while embracing the morbid ridicule of life is nifty. Somehow Anderson struck a balance between our chaotic reality while designing in tatting. It’s art for the sake of art, but escape might be what we need right now. The collection is strong yet silent, much like Anderson himself, bringing balm to confusion, finishing his collection with a crisp white wedding dress.
Some brands designed for containment in the form of left-hand sweatpants, while Anderson wants its wearer to break free from our quarantine chains. We can’t leave our homes, so we might daydream in bulbous pants. Despite the creation of this collection entirely from a distance, he wanted to transport viewers. It takes direct inspiration from history books, recognizes its own frivolity and whimsy in the midst of a chaotic year, but remains a wearable art that looks to the future of fashion. Because Anderson is the future of fashion. “It takes them to another place. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from it all in clothes.”
