LOEWE
PARIS March 1, 2019
The set was simply a black tiled floor inside a white ‘box’; only, on one wall hung a line of Dutch, French, and English portrait miniatures painted in the 15, 16, and 17 centuries. Stripping everything away to see the detail is not the only thing Jonathan Anderson is doing at Loewe. There was something of those paintings in the looks and in Anderson’s fashion in general. The poet shirts, monastic robes, Puritan collars - that blend of ancient and austere clashing with the unusual and the grotesque, represented here by strange headpieces with side wings or others resembling bird’s nests and cascades of feathers and hanging laces fluttering around the clothes. The encouragement to look more closely began with a sweater and ended with an impalpable gauzy fabric or a draped black satin skirt. The final look, a long white lace-trimmed dress with flared sleeves protruding from a black linen overcoat, harked right back to the women in certain portrait paintings.
