Loewe’s Radical Act

Titled ‘A Radical Act of Restraint’, Loewe’s Spring Summer 2025 men’s show hinted at something more minimal.

The show, on a raised platform inside the stables of Paris’ Garde Republicaine barracks, unfolded around a group of objects by a group of artists that, at first sight, had little or nothing in common, besides being favorites of Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson.

The display, which could be seen as both a landscape and a room, channeled author Susan Sontag’s call for an ‘erotics of art’, “privileging sensual pleasure over interpretation.”

A single vintage copy of Sontag’s legendary 1966 essay ‘Against Interpretation’ lay in the middle of the catwalk. It shared the vast wooden floor with a chair and coat rack by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a series of tiny bronze sculptures by Paul Thek, and a framed picture of a single high-heeled shoe by photographer Peter Hujar, displayed on an easel by architect Carlo Scarpa.

Before and after the show, buff security guys stood around the tiny objects, protecting them from being trampled by guests, including Kit Connor, Sabrina Carpenter and new Loewe ambassador, Chinese actor Wang Yibo. On the coat rack hung a red feather boa.

It all looked beautiful, but did it make sense?

It didn’t have to.

Anderson has been in place at Loewe for ten years now. And his voice feels as fresh as ten years ago. The show opened with a series of slim, tailored black suits, worn with elongated oxfords. “They’re an example of things that are incredibly difficult to do, but when you see them, they feel effortless,” Anderson said after the show.

The designer’s act of restraint was radical in the sense that its underpinnings were complex. As with several other collections this season — Prada, most notably — things were often not what they appeared to be. Clothes might have looked simple, even minimal from afar, but in truth they were rich and intricate — as in tops crafted from woven metal or mother-of-pearl, like armor. There was some gold, and the skinny, Parisian suits from the openng made way for extra wide knit trousers that looked inspired by Japanse workmen uniforms. Models’ faces were hidden, partly or entirely, by feathers, and they were often shirtless.

The collection, Anderson added, “was about precision, my own interpretation of precision.”

Courtesy: Loewe

Text: Jesse Brouns