Jonathan Anderson has to great passions, fashion and art and that was clear this morning when Anderson debuted LOEWE’S fall collection. Anderson has had an amazing success with LOEWE since he was appointed as the creative director in 2013. He has redesigned the historic brand from the ground up with a fearless approach resulting in in double-digit sales growth.

The show took place inside the Maison de l’UNESCO in Paris, the show space was decorated by the Neo-Dada sculptures of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo alongside furnishings and an important fireplace designed by E.W. Godwin. It might seem like an incongruous pairing, however, Godwin’s contribution to the Arts & Crafts tradition was heavily influenced by Victorian Japonisme, complimenting Kudo’s grotesque Post-Human microcosms.

Questioning the facade of the introvert, the LOEWE Women’s Fall-Winter 2018 collection is about where the organic meets industrial and where mid-century shapes take on a contemporary feel. Embracing LOEWE tradition, leather is worked as both surface and accessory. Smooth topstitched calfskin imposes structure on cotton plissé dresses, is spliced through lace, or falls in vertical panels down soft smocks and trousers. Flared coats and capes create ample volume in flat gabardine, plush shearling, or raw-cut optical jacquard.

In deconstructing notions of tailoring, the pantsuit is rendered fluid in wool jersey, silk jacquard, and field checks with sack pockets or a kimono sleeve. Shirt collars and hems extend in curved arcs, and a blazer is wrapped as a bow. In erogenous twists, multi-yarn wraps slice column dresses or fuse disparate textiles as a single garment. The graphics touch of polka dot and hound’s tooth joins lingerie as a romantic textural abstraction.

In a LOEWE take on the traditional saddle bag, the knotted ‘Gate’ bag returns re-imagined in burnished box calfskin, panelled in hound ’s tooth wool. It is updated in a miniature style and an exotic top-handled tote.

Stella Tennant and Josh O’Connor reading the books, photographed by Steven Meisel

All the guests at the Fall Winter 2018 Women’s show each received one of five hardcover novels of classic literature published by LOEWE on their seat. The books were first seen in the Fall-Winter 2018 Men’s and Women’s campaign photographed by Steven Meisel. The series include Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conran, and Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes.