Men’s Fashion Week: Review Of Loewe Men’s Fall/Winter 2021

After last year’s ingenious Show in a Box and Show on the Wall, Jonathan Anderson continues pushing the boundaries of how to keep the fashion dream alive and tangible in this era of diminished physical connections. For his latest Loewe menswear presentation, he settled on two different formats. First, there is the ‘Show in a Book’—a 200-page hardbound volume dedicated to the works of Joe Brainard, the writer and artist who helped define the queer New York scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Anderson envisioned the book as the catalogue of an exhibition yet to take place and will release it as a standalone volume when the collection hits stores in June, with all proceeds going to Visual AIDS.

Related article: Review of Dior Men Fall/Winter 2021

Inside the book, Anderson has compiled Brainard’s rarely-seen works—comics, graphics, printed matter, ephemera and collages. The collages, in particular, became Anderson’s starting point for the collection. Anderson’s Loewe has always had an artsy, eccentric bent but this season the quality was even more pronounced. Like collages, the clothes were cut up, rearranged, piled up and juxtaposed in different combinations. T-shirts and sweaters were multiplied, sheets of Brainard’s artworks printed or pasted onto jacket lapels and shirts. The collection was also a collage of subcultural codes—in the mix were grungy sweaters, raver maxi-trousers, punk bondage leathers, hippie shearlings and mod duffle coats. The silhouettes in general veered towards the roomy, supersized and elongated as Anderson kits out his men to take up space.

Bound together with the ‘Show in a Book’ by a Loewe book strap was another cardboard box—this one containing the Show on a Shirt, showcasing the brand’s Eye/Loewe/Nature collection playfully printed on an oversized white tee. It is the first time that Anderson is presenting the capsule along with the main runway line—all the better to highlight the different facets of the Loewe man. The outdoors-oriented collection mixes elements of vintage, military and performance gear with a bigger focus than ever on upcycled and repurposed materials.