Loewe : Metaphysical mode

Loewe staged its latest show in the Chateau de Vincennes, in a Metaphysical set that suggested an outsider looking in, just like in this rather brilliant collection.

At its heart were a whole series of modern-day morning dress; tailcoats, Etonian public school coats or elongated fracks, though radically reimagined for 2025 and finished with unexpected beading. Combined most of them with gigantic silk pants in bold floral prints.
 
“I discovered some 1920s morning coats, and I found them incredibly empowering, as they make you hold yourself a certain way,” explained Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson post show, after taking his bow with his hands in his pockets. 

All cross bred by Anderson with the works of Albert York, the American artist known for his naive oil paintings of farm animals, gardens and dogs. In effect, the country house set was also an exhibition of York’s works, 18 of which were hung on forest green walls. With multiple arches and a maze like layout, the set recalled De Chirico’s metaphysical designs.  An image by York of suspicious bulldog even leaving the wall to appear on densely woven chess shaped dress.
 
Though the star of the show was the exceptional silhouette, most especially the enormous trousers cut with a plethora of folds, Janissary style; and paired with an unlikely series of Anglo floral chintz prints.
 
“Like in York’s paintings, folk framing, windows into another world, I was thinking about why we collect things, the idea of the commission, or the Chippendale chair. An outsider looking into a world we don’t experience, which is foreign in itself,” mused Anderson.
 
An outsider very much like York in a sense. Though relatively obscure, his paintings ended up being collected by wealthy patrons like Paul Mellon, Edward Gorey and Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy – and hence hanging on palatial Fifth Avenue apartments.
 

Anderson actually opened the show with evening looks, a trio of silk floor sweeping gowns with cut out sides and open back, cinched at the waist with buckled belts. They looked stunningly new.
 
His other big idea in tailoring were the Crombies and redingotes finished with gilded silver lapels that turned out to be made of wood, Chippendale style.
 
Anderson turned closer to home for his prints, finding them in a brand called Chelsea.

“It was a small factory in Britain that lasted for about two minutes, copying everything French, which is where he got the idea for a completely beaded asparagus bag,” he chuckled with evident delight.
 
Like the clothes, the soundtrack was an assemblage – everything from dark techno Dip 6 by William Basinki, to apocalyptic punk Hell in Paradise by Yoko Ono.
 
The result was a highly decorative collection, where everything seemed to be in exactly the right place, like in a noble family’s mansion.
 
“The idea of the aristocrat is almost a caricature, they don’t really exist anymore, they are almost like Mangas nearly,” insisted Anderson, temporarily forgetting that the Jaime de Marichalar, the Duke of Lugo and a board member of Loewe, was sitting in the front row.
 
Underlining the sense of an odd man out looking in, a Loewe crew filmed people arriving in cars. A series of 1970s rare Jaguars, Mercedes and Rolls Royces parked outside the Chateau de Vincennes.