LOEWE has released the men’s Fall Winter 2021 runway collection and the Fall Winter 2021 women’s precollection in store, coinciding with the launch at Printed Matter of the monograph A Joe Brainard Show in a Book, the original 200-page hardbound volume which was first distributed to press and guests in January, in lieu of the LOEWE show.
Both the LOEWE men’s collection and the women’s precollection take inspiration from the work of Joe Brainard, of whom creative director Jonathan Anderson is an admirer. Brainard (USA, March 11, 1942-May 25, 1994) a true outsider, was an artist, writer, illustrator and poet. His signature were a lightness and an immediacy that are particularly evident in his collages. The LOEWE collections employ prints and jacquards, taken from Brainard’s body of work, on clothing and accessories, but also explore collage as a creative mindset: a way to create looks and characters patching together different, even contrasting, bits. T-shirts and jumpers, for instance, are multiplied into triplets, while sheets with artworks are printed onto the front and lapels of blazers.
In the men’s collection, iconic elements culled from the iconography of different subcultures —stripy grunge jumpers, rave-redolent trousers and wallabees, punk-inclined bondage stovepipes and mohair knits, hippie shaggy shearling, beatnik black and mod duffle coats— are collaged in unpredictable ways, and accessorized with Chelsea or suede boots.
The women’s pre collection celebrates gathering, folding, tying, wrapping and draping: a way to let the wearer interact with the item of clothing. Lines are clean, volumes are loose, colours are earthy and vivid. Double breasted coat dresses and peacoats add a certain precision. Sandals and printed plimsolls ground the looks. The Joe Brainard artworks are featured all over bags, too: a round bum bag and roll top backpack in printed nylon for men, and, for both men and women, the multifaceted Puzzle bag comes covered in the artist’s iconic pansies.
An original Brainard artwork is featured on the giant fold-out cloth dust jacket that wraps the monograph A Joe Brainard Show in a Book, which contains rarely seen artworks, comics, printed matter and ephemera the artist created during the 1960s and 70s. The book has been designed by M/M (Paris), and features a preface written by Ron Padgett and an essay by art critic Éric Troncy. All proceeds of the sale of the 500 limited edition copies through Printed Matter- the world’s leading non-profit organisation dedicated to the dissemination, understanding and appreciation of artists’ books- will be going to Printed Matter and Visual AIDS, an organisation which utilises art to fight HIV/AIDS by provoking dialogue and supporting artists living with HIV. Joe Brainard, in fact, died of AIDS-related illness.
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