Jonathan Anderson conjured the “ghosts of fashion” this Fall/Winter season, printing mid-20th-century garments—frocks, trench coats, faux furs—atop white shift dresses. They stood stock-still, despite blurring before showgoers’ eyes and the camera’s steady lens. It was, yet again, a feat of illusion for Loewe. “I was fascinated about the psychology of how we ultimately see things online,” the designer mused. “It’s out of focus. Is it staged, or not staged? Is it the right color? Is it photoshopped?”

The ghost dresses weren’t the collection’s only trick. Within a white-box set devised by the artist Lara Favaretto, models emerged in ‘sticker’ cardigans—appearing knit, but actually printed and affixed with adhesive to the skin; bags held their folds, no matter how they were carried; boots bunched at the ankle like fallen-down trousers, carefully molded to appear limp.

For Loewe, it boils down to the idea of reduction—bringing classic garments down to the “bluntest shape possible.” “How do you go out of a surrealist aspect, to something which is more about how we see clothing now?” questioned Anderson post-show. His Paris Fashion Week presentation was highly conceptual—stretching traditional sartorial techniques to their furthest limits, and embracing the innovation that springs forth from that process.