LOEWE FW23 WOMEN'S RUNWAY COLLECTION

Continuing the reductionist act that started with the FW23 men’s collection; bringing it forward and reducing it further. The show unfolds inside a white cube set against a classical building, cubes of confetti by artist Lara Favaretto scattered around.

In a current moment defined by utter extroversion, the FW23 women’s runway presents an introverted stance that’s about silhouette, texture, the way materials react to light. Leather, silk duchesse, satins, velvet, cashmere knit, feathers, crystals. Black, brown, camel, white, red. A pop of pastel.

Playing with blur as a way to stress that fashion, rather than being about the moment, is about the later. About putting into focus what may seem unclear right now.

The tension between focus and out-of-focus sets the pace, smoothly. Impressions that fade, the pixels of the previous season are now blurred. Dresses, trench coats and faux fur coats become an impression: a ghost, a memory that fades or returns, and sticks. Like the cardigan turned into a sticker.

An idea of elementality: one piece, and that’s it, reduced to the bluntest shape possible. A single detail or a gesture creates the silhouette: folded arms, a pin gathering volume, a bag chain holding a drape, folds caught mid-way, boots that collapse.

Proportions matter: fluidity, verticality, drapes and curves, a sudden sharp compactness.

The Squeeze bag is introduced, made in irresistible buttery leather with a squishy handle and donut chain detail. Oversized Puzzle totes and Paseo bags, the leather woven nest basket. In footwear: round-toed boots, oversized bows or shadows on slender pumps.

Reduction, in and out of focus.

Note on the artworks.

For the setting of the show, LOEWE has collaborated again with artist Lara Favaretto (1973, Treviso, Italy) who created a new confetti cube installation —her largest to date comprising 21 cubes with approximately 10 tonnes of confetti— unfolding across the room to create a shifting landscape that is slowly eroded by the bodies that navigate it.

Exploring a space between monument and ruin, Favaretto often uses materials that are volatile or fragile to create works that embrace the inevitability of collapse. Each cube is made from solid confetti —without glue or armatures— formed through a labour-intensive process of manual compression, over several hours, by teams of people. The colours and composition of each confetti cube installation are always derived from a single film still; for this installation Favaretto drew from Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar. At the end of the show the confetti is gathered and re-used in future installations.

With thanks to Galleria Franco Noero

Lara Favaretto

Midsommar, 2023

Colored confetti 90 × 90 × 90 cm each, 21 elements (approx. 450 kilos of confetti each) Overall dimensions variable in time

© Lara Favaretto

Courtesy of Galleria Franco Noero