Anderson’s Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection plays with materials and their relationship with light, as he subtly continues his exploration of modern day surrealism

Anderson’s Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection plays with materials and their relationship with light, as he subtly continues his exploration of modern day surrealism

Jonathan Anderson has presented his Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear Collection as an elaboration on the reductionist act shown in his Fall 2023 Menswear collection in January. For Anderson, the introversion of his most recent collections is a stark contrast to the way he sees the world today; in a state of extroversion. The all-white show space was littered with a series of art installations by Lara Favaretto — a collection of 21 compacted cubes each made up of almost 1000 pounds of confetti each. In the space where the cubes hit the ground, the confetti has pooled around the works, as they speak to the tension between compactness and fluidity. 

The show opened with three trompe l’oeil dresses, a motif that ran throughout the show. Images of dresses have been printed onto the physical white silk dresses in a blurred fashion, almost like a high-fashion rendition of the bikini-printed oversized white tee shirts that are common to a beachside souvenir shop. These looks seem to call back to the fashion house’s Spring 2023 presentation of garments that looked as if they had been pulled straight out of Minecraft, yet here, the digital glitch has been turned into a technological blur through Anderson’s reductionism. A large amount of these dresses have been color matched at the neckline to the skin of the model, reminiscent of Loewe’s Fall 2022 Menswear Collection which featured tee shirts custom printed with the model’s face. This act of customization feels like a subtle statement on the bond we share with our clothing; how intimate we interact with our wardrobe as we get dressed each day.

Reductionism has been explored largely through creating garments that are centered around a singular design detail. Strapless silk dresses have been draped around a single golden orb that sits at the center of the chest, with the fabric floating carefully around the ornament rather than the ornament simply being affixed to the garment. Shirt dresses seen in both leather and silk have been given a sense of fluidity due to a chain fixture that runs over the shoulder, lifting both the hem in the front as well as the back. Simple knit jumpers and cardigans have been given the crinkle effect; as their straightforward silhouette is delightfully and minimally disturbed by the scrunching of fabric.

A range of four looks predominantly made out of leather appears to be a continuation of Anderson’s intrigue with the blurred lines between reality and the metaverse. Leather short sleeve button-ups have been crafted so smoothly out of leather that they almost resemble plastic, so precise in their creation that they seem to have been taken from a computer screen and placed into the physical world. This is also seen in the way that leather has been modeled in both a skirt and a strapless dress; with the leather undulating in the creation of ruffles that are buttery smooth.

Similarly to his Menswear presentation in January, Anderson has put an emphasis on materiality and the way in which different materials interact with light. Leather, silk, cashmere knits, feathers, and more have all been explored in their relation to catching the light, as Anderson lets the fabrications sing with his more pared-back silhouettes. Here, Anderson shows his dedication to the concept of reductionism. 

The common thread that ties together all of Anderson’s work for Loewe is his deep passion for surrealism. Here, it is most explicitly expressed in the blurred trompe l’oeil dresses — by observing the importance of the printed dress in its relation to the physical dress itself, we are led to ask ourselves, which is more real? Yet even in the more simplistic designs shown, Anderson’s sophisticated play with materials has nuances that reflect the modern-day questioning of how the physical world and the internet interact with one another.