Loewe

PARIS, October 3, 2009
By Sarah Mower
"Loewe is a leather house," Stuart Vevers shrugged. "But how do you make leather work for Spring?" His rhetorical question was answered in a rolling series of presentations, where the Spanish luxury company's extraordinary technological advances in finessing skins—like laser perforating, and cutting with a new high-pressure water gizmo—were shown alongside tweaked signatures. Vevers' baseline inspiration was the heritage: the distinctive "oro" mustard-gold shade of leather, a standard since 1975, and the classic handheld Amazona bag.

The challenge has been to add a believable clothing offer, and in this show, Vevers began to get on top of it. His palette of sandy beige suedes, contrasted with a dash of orange, looked punchily chic in the opening passage of easy trenches, as did the Amazona, updated with patent orange handles. Those, and an oxblood coat that looked like a serious investment piece, seemed likely to please connoisseurs of classic quality, but the surprises were all in the little dresses. Paper-fine leather and suede dance frocks were treated to perforations of such delicacy that they looked like lace—one was a gilded fairy dress; another, a ballerina tutu in dark chocolate.

There were also moments of humor: One model carried a clutch of brown paper shopping bags that were, in fact, made of caramel leather. Vevers also offered comparatively workaday pieces, like leather trousers and jeans with whip-stitched leather military stripes on the outside leg, but it was his "summer" leather dresses that marked this collection as noteworthy. Loewe may never be a collection that justifies a grand runway to frame what it's about, but this season's intimate presentation succeeded in conveying the specialness of the brand's craftsmanship.

Style.com

Style File Blog

november 21, 2009

Social intelligence

Selma Blair, Woman of Simple Tastes?

05:11 PM
It was a reunion of sorts: Ginnifer Goodwin, Selma Blair, a host of fabulous Bulgari jewels,...

Dept. of culture

The Pratt Gallery’s Shades of Green

04:11 PM

Q&A

Delfina Delettrez Fendi Isn’t Afraid Of The Dark

04:11 PM

more from the style file blog ›