You couldn’t not notice the heels on the runway. The sandals worn by the models are propped up by bars of soap, bottles of red nail polish, birthday cake candles, half melted lollipops, and even an upturned faux red rose. Just like these quirky details, Loewe’s spring/summer 2022 collection seems to exist in the intriguing holding area between instinct and logic.
There are some similarity between Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson’s approach and Renaissance artist Jacopo Pontormo’s style of painting — Pontormo’s work was purposefully ambiguous when it came to the rules of physics, while Anderson has been reinterpreting the rules that govern the movement and volume of clothes at Loewe, always with surprising result. For this spring/summer 2022 collection, the draped and gathered fabric of the clothes look as if they were floating in water. The sculptural metallic breastplate found on the dresses, trench coats and denim jackets are inspired by Pontormo’s Greco-Roman subject matter and the highly ornamental nature of his works.
Other highlights in the collection include: Darth Vader-style capes, sneakers made from transparent rubber, and dresses with transparent moulded busts not unlike those worn by Jane Fonda in the 1968 sci-fi movie Barbarella.