Jonathan Anderson experiments with illusion for Loewe’s Fall/Winter 2022 Men’s collection. Flags, Paris 2022 was the site of the Spanish house’s presentation, an installation conceived by artists Joe McShea and Edgar Mosa, in which aluminum poles support 87 flags made of multicolored ribbons, giving the space a certain weightlessness. As bodies disappear and reappear through strips of color and sand moves beneath (sometimes bare) feet, the fluidity of the setting prepares one to question their first glance.

Anderson explores concepts like illumination and transparency through menswear staples. LEDs light a peacoat and a pair of trousers from the inside; tinted mackintosh coats all but reveal briefs underneath, and the boots are translucent to match. This straightforward, literal transparency is accompanied by a more conceptual, illusory kind: ‘naked’ trompe l’oeil base layers replace the real bodies of models, while t-shirts reflect a shirtless version of the wearer via textured print. Denim also occupies a central position throughout the presentation. Short pants appear as twisted and tied denim shirts, while long belted coats integrate cuts of denim at the waistline, forcing a double take.

“What is real today?” wonders Loewe’s press release. With this collection, Anderson hopes to provide a response. “Perfection is fabricated, imperfection is erased, illusion and displacement are the coordinates.” In altering conventional menswear staples, Jonathan Anderson and Loewe invite us to question more complex conventions—notions of visibility, privacy, and self.