Loewe Spring 2021 Menswear

Fashion people have been bandying about terms like ‘experiential,’ ‘immersive,’ ‘multi-platform’ and ‘digital’ for years, but only now—in the midst of the horrendous crisis of the pandemic—have creative people started breaking through the walls of all that jargon. What Jonathan Anderson orchestrated on July 12th around the launch of Loewe’s spring 2021 collection and its women’s pre-collection felt like a long-needed quantum leap into the new world of open-ended possibilities. Where would a designer who’s always talked about Loewe as ‘a cultural brand’ and his links with artists and artisans go? How can the truth of tactility and emotion be felt when no congregational live event is possible?

In a midday Zoom call, Anderson said that in the initial shock, he’d tussled with confronting how to carry on. “In the first two weeks of the lockdown, I hated being in the job I do. There’s been a couple of weeks where I’ve really struggled to know why I’m doing this; feeling powerless because you’re not saving lives, or because you’re part of a weird elite.” But then he rallied, “realizing you’re trying to save jobs through this, that there’s a whole ecosystem of families, people who’ve been making bags for generations.”

On one level, what he came up with felt like dipping into a 24-hour Jonathan Anderson-curated worldwide live summer festival of arts, crafts, and conversations on Loewe’s Instagram page and website. “My whole thing is to do something in each time zone,” he said, from his London home, around 12PM British Standard Time. The program rolled from Beijing time onwards, connecting with (amongst others) crafts-collaborators Kayo Ando, who showed the art of Shibori, paper artist Shin Tanaka from Japan and the basketweave artist Idoia Cuesta in Galicia, Spain. There was music curated by Adam Bainbridge (aka Kindness), who showcased a calming ‘medley’ comprising different versions of Finnish musician Pekka Pohjola’s Madness Subsides, performed by Park Jiha in Korea, performer and producer Starchild, French-Malagasy pianist and bandleader Mathis Picard, and American harpist Ahya Simone. Lots more roved through live chats between Anderson and the actor Josh O’Connor, and, later, a conversation with contemporary textile artists Igshaan Adams, Diedrick Brackens, Anne Low, and Josh Fraught.

And on another level, there was the Loewe Show-in-a-Box, a cache of paper-art discoveries delivered as a tactile substitute runway experience to the doorsteps of the people who’d ordinarily have trooped to Paris for the show in the Before Times. It was a grander follow-up to the JW Anderson show-box he sent around last week. This one was a large linen-covered box file. Inside was a pop-up show set, a flip-book of photos of the clothes on mannequins, a paper-pattern of one of the garments, print-outs of sunglasses to try on, textile samples, a set of paper pineapple bags and looks to stick together to make your own 3D ‘models,’ and a pamphlet listing Anderson’s art history inspirations. Slipped alongside was a packet of cut-out paper portrait silhouettes he’d had made of Loewe staff members. “I like that they’re kind of immortalized in this moment,” he said.

For Anderson, it’s been a way of honoring the people who make, the crafts that are involved, and the sea-changes in emotion being wrought in these weird times—as well as capturing it all for posterity in the form of an object, something that a 20-minute runway event never could. “For everyone who’s turned up at my shows for the past 10 years, I’d like them to say ‘Oh, this is how we dealt with it,’ instead of it being visual content that we don’t keep.”

With their sculptural volumes, twisting, looping, and wrapping forms, both collections read as Anderson’s push to convey the 3D presence of garments through the limitations of a flat, 2D medium of communication. Some of his references had been taken from El Greco and Velázquez, and his absorption of high Spanish art in the Prado in Madrid; others from his admiration of Issey Miyake’s pleats, and from wanting to showcase the painstaking handcrafts his collaborators bring. The leather-workers helped him evolve a basket-weave top and a soft, suspended bag that folds itself around one side of the body like an apron. The Japanese Shibori print radiates from the side of a tunic.

“I have actually really enjoyed this process. It has made me be way more humble about who I am in this industry,” he concluded. “If I look at before the pandemic, I was slightly struggling. I was going out to prove that we are doing something. I think what’s been good about doing this is that I’m closer to the people who make the bags, to the pattern cutter.” Holding it all together in the digital space is turning out to mean more sharing of the glory, less behind-closed-doors mystique, more proof of the humanity, time, and ingenuity that goes into making things, he believes. “I think that fashion now has to get rid of all the layers and just say, ‘This is what this brand does, and we’re going to do it with conviction.’ It has to be real. I think it’s bigger than the collection. I’m really proud of it because it’s very honest, it’s our humility. And it’s actually about finding that I love what I do.”

Source: Vogue

FASHIONADO

BIRKENSTOCK BOX X RICK OWENS

THE BIRKENSTOCK BOX VENTURES INTO CALIFORNIA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH RICK OWENS #BIRKENSTOCKBOX

Designed by Gonzalez Haase AAS, BIRKENSTOCK's mobile, spatial retail concept continues its travel in the US, moving to the West Coast in partnership with Rick Owens opening in April 2018.

The full collection will have its global premiere in Los Angeles at the BIRKENSTOCK BOX, which will be placed in front of the Rick Owens store on La Brea Avenue. Casual sportswear and cashmere separates designed by Rick Owens will also be exclusively available for purchase at the BOX. 

Following stops in Berlin with Andreas Murkudis, New York with Barneys New York and Milan with 10 Corso Como, the Los Angeles outpost offers yet another unique viewpoint on design and architecture. It will feature a Limited Edition Cosmetics Kit, as well as a curated edit of BIRKENSTOCK Spring / Summer 18 styles.

The BIRKENSTOCK BOX consists of converted freight containers, which play host to each partner's interior concept and merchandize proposition. In this site-specific iteration, the Box's interior is designed by Rick Owens and incorporates the retail design elements from the Rick Owens New York store.

The Rick Owens BIRKENSTOCK BOX will carry a limited collection of BIRKENSTOCK styles created with Rick Owens, consisting of thirteen sandal styles and three legwear styles. Rick Owens took the classic BIRKENSTOCK styles Arizona, Madrid and Boston and added an element of confection to it by extending the straps almost to the floor and simultaneously extending the holes in the straps. The bespoke styles feature the classic sandal styles in four different fabrications, consisting of army felt, suede, full grain leather and longhair cow fur – all with a full leather footbed lining, retailing from 350 USD to 525 USD. The legwear styles retail from 100 USD.

All bespoke BIRKENSTOCK x Rick Owens sandal and legwear styles are available for pre-order now on rickowens.eu and launch on all Rick Owens and Birkenstock channels in April.

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TOD'S SPRING 2018 MENSWEAR

TOD'S SPRING 2018 MENSWEAR - See collection.

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Gigi Hadid Shoots Zayn for Versus Versace SS17 Campaign

Versus Versace's latest ad campaign stars Zayn and British Model Adwoa Aboah, but what you probably didn't know is that it's photographed by Gigi Hadid using her iPhone and digital cameras. Shocking, right?

Lifestyle explains how Zayn and Adwoa Aboah give their best you-can't-sit-with-us expressions during a series of intimate shots styled in black leather get-ups, metal mesh tanks and fine knit tops.

Look forward to seeing the new Versus collection which drops soon!

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Tod's Fall 2017 Ready-To-Wear

Tod's Fall 2017 Ready-To-Wear

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