Loewe and Their New Move for Menswear

I will admit that menswear easily topples into patterns of monotony and repetition. Whenever a menswear collection comes up, I sift through my preconceived ideas about what it would look like. Will it be greyscale, straight leg, collared, earthy tones or baggy? Suppose a designer of Loewe feels ambitious and ‘boundary-breaking’. In that case, they’d include titillating see-through fabric or a shirt with a gaping chest. And suits, of course. So many suits.

The limitations of menswear are particularly exacerbated today in our current world. According to recent observations, only two types of ‘fashionable’ men are available.

The first are the “streetwear militants”, with strictly Kendrick Lamar playing through their AirPods and Jordans on their feet. By the way, you lose all fashion credibility if you crease your Jordans. The second are men who exclusively shop in Uniqlo.

However, Loewe has defeated this decade-long plague with their spring-summer 2024 (“SS24”) menswear collection. We last saw a galore of colours, patterns, silhouettes and styling in the 30s, 60s and 70s.

Haute for High-Waist

This collection had signature pants, which came in different variations. The common denominator of each was where it sat. It hugged the ribs of each model, almost level to their chest, and the rest collapsed into a relaxed fit as the excess fabric crinkled and pooled around their feet. The variety saw that the pants would be one of the most versatile silhouettes a man could own.

The audience walked through a multitude of eras through the historical relevance of each fabric. Four shades of denim graced the audience’s eyes, and a duplicate set of these were bejewelled and sparkled like you were back in the 70s. My favourite was the sage green rendition with the most unique asymmetrical top.

The top looked like a sheet of metal that had been sculpted. It was dented like the frame of a car after an accident, but in this case, it was beautiful and even slightly avant-garde. The styling of this greatly exemplified the versatility of both pieces for the modern man through the contrasting elements of earthy tones with the metallic futuristic design of the top.

Anderson’s Intention

Jonathan Anderson has been Loewe’s creative designer for a decade now. His vision for this veteran fashion house is to remain modern and relevant while nodding at timeless silhouettes. In the previous menswear collection, I found it to be erratic and directionless. I couldn’t figure out what or who the Loewe wearer was meant to be. Now, Anderson has given me an answer.

The Loewe man is modern and fun. He will have a closet the size of the La Sagrada Familia. He will own pieces as old as it whilst building his collection with the modern world just as Gaudi’s Basilica still is. The Loewe man is intentional with his clothing and unafraid of colour or patterns, for they speak to his innate Spanish roots of excitement, adventure and flamboyance. He is undoubtedly the man who gets front-row tickets to every show at fashion week.

Jumpsuit Jackpot from Loewe

I rarely see jumpsuits designed for men, and if you had asked me to think about it, I probably would have gotten the ick. However, unlike Anderson’s, this only demonstrates my imagination’s limitations. The jumpsuits Anderson designed for this collection were spectacular. Furthermore, its use of leather was a massive acknowledgement of Loewe’s beginnings founded by a collective of leather craftsmen.

The jumpsuit’s elongated, slack shape counteracted the leather’s heavy nature. It stretched across each model’s shoulders, cutting just across the neck and hung in command over their bodies. It could have easily looked like a potato sack. Still, Anderson’s artisanal design made sure that every crease that rested upon the body’s natural crevice looked intentional. Such genius embodied the influence of Anderson’s ultimate inspiration, which was the late Issey Miyake, whom Anderson had regarded as the ‘most important designer of the 20th century’.

Jonathan Anderson and The Future of Loewe

I would like to think that this collection is merely a sample of what Anderson has in store for the future of menswear at Loewe. Already, he has begun playing around with more avant-garde ideas. By introducing more experimental elements, Anderson has enormous potential to take menswear to a level it has never ventured before. In three years, we could witness Anderson create a revolutionary menswear collection that would be a turning point in the history of male fashion.