Perhaps there should be a study on the contribution fashion brands can make to upping national tourism statistics. An Irishman he may be, but what Jonathan Anderson is doing to promote the attractiveness of Spain through his work at Loewe should bring him to the attention of some government department—if it hasn’t already. Using Salvador Dalí’s house at Cadaqués in Catalonia as a background for his menswear campaign is the latest episode in his methodical underscoring of the label’s identity as a fine leather goods company founded in Madrid in 1846 (though, of course, it’s been part of the French LVMH group for a long time).
The real-time communication with the press was via an exhibition at the brand headquarters at the Rue Bonaparte in Paris. “I think this is my favorite way of showing,” Anderson said. “After all the trouble we take to design, and then shoot the pictures, you want people to be able to see the work up close.” Smart: Because it’s all tactile, handcrafted stuff, accented with an off-beam quirkiness that tenuously relates to Dalí’s Surrealism. Thus we came across a bizarre pointed tapestry hat Anderson described as “a kind of fez” at the nonsense one-off end of the range, and leather key-ring charms in the shape of crabs, shells, and dolphins at the other, definitely commercial souvenir end.
As Anderson pointed out, the menswear collection “never existed before at Loewe,” so it’s a work in progress. In the mix there were such things as a seriously luxe lavender mohair suit, but also—for Anderson is a pragmatist—lighthearted easy-to-wear sweaters (one with an anchor motif, another with a naive piratical skull and crossbones appliqué). It all contributes to the sense of a developing culture he’s growing around the brand—something involvingly warm and authentic rather than distant and forever inaccessible to a young person. The navy canvas shoulder bag stamped with the word Welcome summed it up.
