In other corners, there were reminders of how Anderson can make a thing out of exaggerating and fetishizing utility kit—leather waders—while styling them with the sort of perfectly cut Loewe trouser suits and shirts you find merchandized in their stores. Long ago, Anderson asserted the idea that inspiration can come from anything and be shown apparently randomly, just as long as this artwear—whatever you call it—is beautifully made, innovating technique.
There were groups showing the conceptual things Loewe does with leather—a moment for coats, biker jackets and bombers vertically slashed in a way that made you think ‘medieval.’ Further rooms were devoted to the Loewe Spanish leather-working ateliers, their tools, the fine skins they use, and the intricate pattern geometry that goes into the making of the wildly successful Puzzle Bag.
Art pieces were scattered around, most of them acquired by Loewe on Anderson’s advice. His habit of exhibiting contemporary art as part of his shows led to purchases which have helped boost the careers of artists, many of them female. One of them was Rachel Harrison, whose chunk of polystyrene with a teetering typewriter on top, made in 2011, is entitled “Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.”
Anderson’s elevation of the status of craft is one of his most influential achievements. In fashion, nobody ever mentioned the word before he came along—indeed, it was snobbily shied away from, actively dispensed with in the era of globalization and the massification of ‘luxury.’
The fact that the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut agreed to a collaboration with Loewe is testament to the esteem this fashion house is held in as a serious proponent of arts and crafts. Anni Albers, an experimental weaver, fought all her life to have her compositions of texture and color taken as seriously as her husband’s abstract paintings. Multi-colored flecked woven cocoon coats, and bags hand-embroidered with pompoms reproduced by Loewe’s artisans will be available in flagship stores.
The upshot: this was an exhibition, beyond just a myriad of product, with all sorts of depths and insights you never get to see or understand on a runway. Anderson has created a joyfully uplifting legacy here.
