Photo-illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
The first thing you noticed at Friday’s Loewe show was that we were sitting in a bullfight. The all-white circular set was a miniature of bullrings in Spain. There was even a second floor, where staff and friends of the Madrid company gathered to watch celebrities parade, including director Tim Burton and actors Lesley Manville and David Jonsson, seated with other guests on white blocks forming concentric circles. An arena implies a shared experience.
The other thing you noticed was that the brand’s creative directors, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, had actually designed clothing. This statement is not as ridiculous as it sounds. Last season, for their second ready-to-wear collection, they created inflatable parkas, in case you fell off a plane en route to Ibiza and needed a raft. They got a little carried away by the gadgets; let’s call them “experiments” in the high realm of Parisian fashion, but they were gags. And their predecessor, Jonathan Anderson, made Loewe a conceptual brand, combining craftsmanship and culture.
But the industry has a big desire for clothing that can be more directly connected to people’s lives. This recognition is behind the success of companies like Chanel, Prada and Phoebe Philo. Consumers want something new, clothes with a certain touch of originality, but they also want realism, especially at these prices. As American designers, McCollough and Hernandez understand the simplicity of sportswear, a term you rarely hear in Europe. (Across Asia, sportswear means sweatpants and Nikes.) But if you consider what seems new in the most exciting spring 2027 collections, it’s jeans, separates, and knits of all kinds. In short, sportswear.
From left to right: Photo: Estrop/Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From the top: Photo: Estrop/Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
McCollough and Hernandez designed compact knit polo dresses, understated plaid blazers presented with cotton pouf mini-skirts inspired by the pleats of skirts in baroque paintings, crinkled silk cargo pants and embroidered micro-shorts worn with a dark solid round neck. For as long as I’ve known them, about 25 years, designers have worn an unbuttoned shirt like a jacket. Well they have some in the collection, in a plain tone of suede but also in suede that has been mowed and the fine ridges have then been inked with color.
From left to right: Photo: Estrop/Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From left to right: Photo: Estrop/Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
The smooth effect of the dark leather jackets with a front flap that folds into an epaulette on one shoulder was also strong. Their idea of a summer evening look was an orange chiffon skirt with a tie-dyed, lightly beaded hem, paired with two contrasting chiffon tank tops in the same lemony hues.
From left to right: Photo: Dominique Maitre/WWD via Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From the top: Photo: Dominique Maitre/WWD via Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
As timely as their arena show was, it would have benefited from a more distinctive cast, like Sarah Burton’s Tom Ford, Chanel and Givenchy, which included French author Constance Debré and veteran model Frankie Rayder. If you’re trying to make a dynamic statement about ease, you need a cast that feels real and alive, and isn’t primarily made up of the newest models.
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