TV tee

Loewe sees wearable tech and raises it garments implanted with screens
By Bailey Slater | Fashion | 26 June 2022

You hear a lot of chat about sustainable fashion these days, with hit-or-miss results. Jonathan Anderson’s vision of circular style, however, stretches light years beyond a pair of naturally dyed trousers, fusing electrical sockets with elements of the natural world in his latest collection at Loewe.

Reducing his stage to complete nothingness, save for a colossal hill of white slate, there is nowhere for Anderson’s garments to hide. They stand facing a horizon of fluorescent lighting, each stitch, ruffle and stem in clear view. Leather coats are chameleonic, bonded with phone cases, charging cables, makeup brushes and keyrings for the overzealous pocket stuffer. We suppose he could whack it all in a clutch, but the brand’s signature balloon bags find new life here sandwiched onto puffy-pink shoe soles.

Sports leggings and puffy trainers come next, followed by duvet bombers that balloon around the waist in flat olive hues, or hang low in subtle, sticky creams. They pair off with low-cut running shoes and thick wool dusters that have succumbed to the elements, shrouded in clumps of Yeti-like moss and patches of curly chia plants. To create these travelling eco-systems, some of which are impaled with legions of jagged green spikes, Anderson worked closely with sustainable designer Paula Ulargui Escalona, moistening grey sweatpants and baggy denim for twenty days ahead of the show as they allowed nature to truly run its course.

The outlandish fabrication didn’t stop there, either. Anderson also toyed with interactive masks, long sleeves with sultry, winking chests and coat panels made entirely out of screens. They depicted scaly orange fish in their natural habitats, or followed birds through tropical sunsets like a wearable screensaver from your childhood computer, bringing new elements of poetic materiality to the art of casual dress.

GALLERYCatwalk images from Loewe SPRING-SUMMER-2023





BACKSTAGE