Taking cues from the fisheye lens, Jonathan Anderson employs illusion to warp the fantasies of the chronically online
Against the pompous radiance of Waystar Royco corporate royalty and The White Lotus’s unruly guests seated in its front row, Loewe pushes back against the lusterless elitism of “quiet luxury” that’s foregrounded contemporary fashion’s front pages. Jonathan Anderson’s Spring/Summer 2024 menswear collection emblazons the elemental ease of the everyday with a coat of crystal droplets, sharing a sun-powered shimmer with the trio of spewing fountains that lay at the runway’s center. Echoing the water’s refraction of light, this season looks toward perspective—points of view, scale, and perception—for answers to the future of craftsmanship.
For Anderson, fashion is a “reductionist act,” as traditional garments are warped to match the distorted fantasy of a 0.5x selfie: Sparkles are subdued in cerebral pastels; waistlines kiss the ribs, elongating legs to new heights. Garments are reimagined for the obsolescent body; tops are made of voluminous scrolls of fabric, held together by oversized pins.
“I think the sparkle gives you this idea of illusion when you see it on screen or in the flesh,” says Anderson. In conversation with past seasons’s explorations of the outright and sensual, Loewe delves into the ideals of online presentation. Departing from the austerity of the fleshy form, the designer ushers in a new era of modernity that finds beauty within the chronically online.