Of mice and models: artworks take centre stage at Loewe fashion show

While it is common to spot stern-looking bodyguards alongside celebrities at fashion shows, at the Loewe show on Saturday in Paris it was several artefacts placed on the catwalk that demanded the most security.

Scattered on the floor were tiny mice from Paul Thek’s 1975 Personal Effects of the Pied Piper Series, a 1966 copy of Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation and a 1898 high-backed wooden Argyle chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Held at the Garde Républicaine’s Célestins barracks in the 4th arrondissement, the vast indoor arena usually used for exercising horses had been transformed into a sterile gallery show space.

Before the show each guest was sent an invitation featuring a black and white print of a high-heeled shoe taken by Peter Huja. The American photographer who rose to fame posthumously is best known for capturing New York’s downtown scene in the 70s and 80s.

At the show, the original print appeared on an easel. Speaking backstage, Loewe’s creative director, Jonathan Anderson, described the image as his starting point, imagining “what a collection would be if it was that”.

Anderson, who also helms his own brand, JW Anderson, has a knack for taking esoteric references and broadening them out in wider ideas. He is also able to balance the obscure with the commercial.

It is this amalgamation that has made Loewe, a 178-year-old Spanish house once considered stuffy, white hot. According to Lyst, a fashion app that monitors the ever-shifting taste of consumers, Loewe sits at number three on its index, just behind Miu Miu and Prada. The British actors Maggie Smith and Lesley Manville have starred in campaigns. The singer Beyoncé chose one of its sparkly bodysuits for her Renaissance tour. Its puzzle bags are highly sought after on secondhand sites, while its £325 anagram vest top has become a cult item among gen Z-ers.

The brand made a profit of €127.6m in 2022, an 87% increase from the previous fiscal year. In January, its parent company LVMH announced the conglomerate had achieved a record revenue. In a statement it described a “remarkable performance” by Loewe and praised Anderson’s “bold, creative leadership”.

Anderson has carved out such a niche aesthetic that fans are able to pinpoint obscure items that encapsulate it. Earlier this month one such user posted a photo on X of an heirloom tomato with the caption: “This tomato is so Loewe I can’t explain it.” The internet chimed in with 98,000 people agreeing that, weirdly, yes, the red and ribbed calabash was just SO Loewe. Anderson reposted it and days later posted an image of a clutch shaped like the heirloom fruit, claiming “we had already made it for next season lol”.

At Saturday’s show the actor Jeff Goldblum was joined on the front row by the pop star Sabrina Carpenter and Loewe’s latest brand ambassador, the Chinese actor and singer Wang Yibo. “I love how fun and uniquely witty and sensual it is,” said Goldblum, who before the show was enjoying some of Thek’s mice that were placed near his feet. “I’m still absorbing and drinking in his [Anderson’s] epic scope and vision.”

While neither the filmmaker Luca Guadagnino nor the actor Zendaya were at the show (Anderson designed the costumes for Challengers), there were plenty of fans outside the venue wearing its “I Told Ya” T-shirts, showcasing how Anderson’s power has started to transcend fashion.

The show opened with several inky black morning suits. Each model wore a headband featuring a single or trio of long bird feathers, turned upside down to slightly obscure the wearer’s face. Some were covered in gold lamé. Anderson described the effect as “hypnotising”.

There were also optical illusions. Sweaters were painted to look like cable knits while the hem of a trench coat was wired upwards giving the impression the wearer was caught in a gust of wind. Swishy wide-legged and pleated mohair trousers almost looked squidgy.

Anderson said he liked the idea of pieces acting differently on the wearer than how they appeared on a clothes rack. “Things are not what they seem,” he explained. He also spoke about the idea of “restraint”.

While Derby shoes were elongated with knife-sharp pointed toes, Anderson said each centimetre was considered then reconsidered. “There’s a fine balance. It still has to be believable and something you can walk in.”

Asked why he had chosen each art piece for the catwalk, Anderson said: “I like that these people are singular. They think singularly in terms of ideas.” A view that had clearly had an impact on his own. “Sometimes you want to push something even further, I like the knowingness of when to pull back.”