Things aren’t what they seem at the Loewe Fall Winter 2023 ready-to-wear show. Celebrating a decade at the helm of the Spanish design house, Jonathan Anderson has us squinting our eyes with his latest show.
The first few looks set the tone for the collection. Three smock dresses, identical in silhouette, but each playing tricks on the eyes with their out-of-focus impressions of other old-world dresses; two floral tea dresses and an LBD. Bestowing the immediate sense that Anderson knows something we don’t. “It’s a bit like the ghost of fashion,” said Jonathan Anderson. “This idea of the past and where we are now.”
Anderson, who likes to probe modern technology and explore its coexistence with the natural world, explained that the idea didn’t stem from innovation, but rather, a question of perspective. “The blurry aspect in motion looks like a glitch,” he said about the looks. “It’s out of focus. Is it staged, or not staged? Is it the right colour, is it photoshopped?” The answer, as Occam’s razor tells us, is the simplest explanation. Particularly for those watching at home, though, Anderson’s designs may prompt some magnification.
Also read: Paris Fashion Week FW23: Natural Inclinations At Acne Studios
“Printing a garment on a garment is not a new thing,” says Anderson. “But I was fascinated about the psychology of how we ultimately see things online.” With a propensity for putting head-turning twists on the house’s classic approach to clothing and accessories, there was plenty to get you thinking. Taking the trickery to another level, we see what, at first glance, appears to be slightly oversized knit cardigans with a scrunched-up paper effect print. In reality, the pieces are just a layer adhesive paper with a knitwear print, stuck to the models’ skin. Then there’s the velvet dresses—three of them in black, brown and pale yellow—that seem normal and flat from the view behind a screen, but in-person can be seen standing away some distance from the body.
A ‘t-shirt and jeans’ look made entirely of goose feathers and slouchy leather boots that collapse to mimic pants bunched around the ankles were stand-outs from the show, as well the Lego-like chubby leather crops that will no doubt all spur shifts in the trend cycle.
While it’s unclear if the intended message is that we can’t see things as they truly are online—our perspective is at the whim of the creator and what they decide we see—it’s clear that Anderson is a designer highly-atuned to the world he creates in. He accounts for the digital world without worship or contempt, and knows how to garner attention without stooping to frivolity for the sake of breaking the internet.
Take a glimpse into Loewe Fall Winter 2023 below.
This article originally appeared on GRAZIA INTERNATIONAL.
Read more: Paris Fashion Week FW23: Balenciaga Marks A New Chapter