Tracey Emin is an artist. Vincent Van Gogh was an artist. Édouard Manet was also an artist. Jonathan Anderson might fancy himself an artist, too, going by the showpieces he created for Loewe’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection.
The collection was presented in a spacious white room, the kind where one usually holds an art exhibition. In fact, there was a single artwork on display, perched upon a towering pole: a delicate bronze sculpture of a bird made by Emin. In her sculptures, the British artist often uses the bird as a symbol of our vulnerability as humans; looking up at the small creature in its solitude should invite introspection. But when placed in the middle of a fashion show—a hub of distraction, especially with the presence of celebrity guests—Emin’s bird fades into the background.
Anderson set out to achieve the opposite—that is, to cut through the noise—with Loewe’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection. The show’s press notes ask, “Is it possible to fill an empty white room, commanding attention, without shouting for space?”
Anderson’s answer came in the form of the crinoline dresses that opened the show. The stiff ensembles do not resemble clothing so much as they do sculptures: through the sheer, floral silk, you can see that dresses are shaped with hoops and weighted with fine chains along the hem. As the models walked, the dresses bobbed with each step, their airy fabric fluttering about.
Anderson appreciates the visual effect. The designer told WWD, “The fabric is like floating off the garment. So you have the structure, but then you have this idea that something is in movement. So you get this body moving, or the body looking like it’s hovering somehow.”
Outside of spectacle, what do those crinoline dresses offer to the women who will wear them off the runway? It’s hard to say, although the dresses do come with pockets. In fact, the pockets were the most practical thing about those opening looks, aside from the accessories they were styled with: oversized, mirrored aviators; oxford shoes with freakishly elongated tips; boat shoes with character, and high-top versions of Loewe’s cult Ballet Runner sneakers.
So far, Loewe’s crinoline dresses have been worn in real life a couple of times—if one counts red carpet events as real life. Ayo Edibiri graced a gala and an after-party wearing a dress, mere days after Loewe’s show at Paris Fashion Week. Ambika Mod also opted for a dress when she attended the 2024 British Fashion Awards. The actress had “a lovely evening walking sideways through doors”, as she wrote in an Instagram post. The hoop of Mod’s dress was pressed against her when she posed for pictures with friends, and later bent awkwardly about her when she sat down for dinner.
Maybe the dresses aren’t meant to be worn in real life, where women have to do things like navigate streets, board crowded trains, climb into cabs, go up or down the stairs, or simply walk through doors. In Loewe’s Spring/Summer 2025 campaign, the dresses were not worn but hung on poles in the middle of a forest. Spectral.
Thankfully there are more substantial pieces in the collection. Those who like the whimsy and liberating waistlines of Loewe’s crinoline dresses can try the mini trapeze dresses instead, whose proportions recall those seen in Marc Jacobs’s doll-inspired Spring/Summer 2024 collection. Loewe’s trapeze dresses are perfect for parties, with their dangerously high hemlines and high shine achieved with layers of sequins or mother-of-pearl shells. There are also trapeze jackets cut from supple leather to consider in the outerwear department, if the comically flared coats in the collection are not to your liking. And there is a new trapeze bag, which has been named after Loewe’s home, Madrid.
Elsewhere, Anderson offered his twist to the band tee by covering it with feathers and printing it with the faces of famous classical composers, like Bach, Mozart and Chopin. One feathered shirt was printed with a painting by Manet. Others reproduced Van Gogh’s flower paintings—a new kind of floral print.
Those lightweight pieces featuring great artists remind us of what Anderson really is: a great fashion designer, with an ability to construct wearable clothing with inventive forms, all while staying true to the artisanal craftsmanship that lies at the heart of Loewe. It’s impressive that Anderson has created yet another spectacle on the runway. But more impressive is his feat of turning something we see everyday, like the T-shirt, into something spectacular.
This story originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of GRAZIA Singapore.
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