Loewe AW22: Camp amongst the Metaverse.
At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson’s commentary on what’s real and what is digital takes on new meanings. Showing on Saturday in a show space covered by colourful strings and sand, the first thought is a beach hut, somewhere far away from the metaverse (something Anderson has challenged last week with his JW Anderson collection in Milan). The first looks of the collection were all lit up by tiny LED lights – coats with lights at the lapels, skin tight vests with scattered lights all around, it was truthfully the British designer’s way of pointing out that we are stuck in the cyberspace universe, even on the beach.
Continuing on his geometric approach from his SS22 womenswear collection, Anderson brought the lumps and bumps (Thank you, Rei Kawakubo) into shorts, t-shirts and cut-out colourful knit to furthermore question all of the metaverse and the manipulation and re-shaping of bodies and digital clothing using apps like Photoshop and Face App, a place where any version of yourself is possible.
Equal parts camp and meta, the reconstruction of fashion continued with printed crystallised bodysuits with the models’ bodies on top of their own, alongside t-shirts of their own faces worn inside-out, covering the actual head. Heart-shaped motifs across balaclavas, padded sweaters furthermore resembled Instagram face-filters in an Anderson-questioning-what-is-actual-reality kind of way.
The unique beauty behind Loewe and Jonathan Anderson’s unique spin is that immaculately detailed craftsmanship meets excitement and fearlessness of using fashion as a core tool for discussion and expression of theories and concepts of life – something the designer is hilariously brilliant at.
