For the last few seasons, Jonathan Anderson has been meticulously scaling back his Loewe shows in what he has been calling “a reductionist act”, a continuation of his deep dive into contemporary surrealism as a means to answering some of fashion’s big questions: What is the purpose of a fashion show? How are clothes viewed online, as opposed to in person? How does craft, a pillar of Loewe, evolve in a time of digital imagery?
For his SS24 menswear collection, it came down to a play on perspective. Three Lynda Benglis fountains — some towering up to the ceiling, others as low as a garden water feature — formed a splashy backdrop to a collection that he said he made with the “idea of a fisheye lens looking up at someone”. The result was a pervasively wasp-waisted silhouette with a shrunken torso and elongated legs, extending from the ribs down to the floor. The first few looks also riffed on those fountains: polo tops and jeans entirely emblazoned in water-drop crystals, colour-matched with the fabric beneath. “I think the sparkle gives you this idea of illusion when you see it on screen or in the flesh,” Jonathan said. Dwarfed by the fountains in the background, they shimmered in the midday light pouring through the glass ceiling of the venue, offering a slightly jazzier counterpart to the ‘Is it Leather?’ variations of wardrobe staples that have appeared in other collections this year.
You could say that this is Jonathan’s take on not-so-Quiet Luxury, a term that has gotten louder with the chatter around Succession. Always one for a wink-wink in-joke, Jonathan invited Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) to sit front row at the show. It taps into a strange moment in which there seems to be a lot of demand for the pendulum to swing away from larger-than-life frocks, blingy logomania and status-anxiety signals of wealth, which feel at sorts with economic austerity, environmental protests and digital oversharing. However, fashion is now too fragmented to formulate singular narratives and shows are only getting bigger, more spectacular and further flung across the world. The desire for timeless clothing is as old as time itself — but what Jonathan understands is how to design clothes that tap into the zeitgeist while simultaneously retaining that touch of treasure-forever luxe.
“I do feel like less is more — but in a new way,” Jonathan explained after his last Loewe show. “I don’t think we’re heading into modernity like it was. It’s not like 90s modernity; there’s something more peculiar happening.” This show cemented those feelings through experimentation with archetypal wardrobe staples — blue jeans, camel coats, polo tops, argyle sweaters, trench coats, striped shirts, straight-cut black suits — imbuing each one with conceptual silhouettes and interesting fabric developments, like sheared-shearling that looked like linen, grey rib-knit cardigans with perpendicular panels jutting from the sleeves, a suede tunic connecting to a matching tote bag slung from the shoulder, and trousers seemed to creep up further towards the chest with every look — even if it was merely a trick of the eye.
Increasingly, Jonathan’s collections for Loewe have been expanding on that idea of outfits that are elemental, often emphasising one piece reduced to the bluntest and most memorable silhouette possible. It’s what makes his collections cut through the noise, without becoming a heap of greige cashmere that kids will christen as stealth wealth. Besides, there are still some playful statements, like the two Brobdingnagianswatches (complete with hyper-sized pins) of damask silk, ostensibly pinned to the body and worn as a backless top. “It is always like trying to find contradictions in men,” he said collection, and of those looks specifically: “I like this idea that as it comes on the catwalk and looks like someone’s like put a swatch from the mood board on to it.” It was a reminder that Jonathan is a designer’s designer, and sartorial experimentation is the stuff that his Loewe is made of.
