Make Texture a preferred source on Google to support us
Add Texture to GoogleFirst, there is the visual vertigo evoked by the setting. Standing in the heart of the medieval fortress of the Château de Vincennes, with its massive stone ramparts steeped in centuries of tales of war and royal legends, a clinical-white cubic structure commands attention. This immaculate box—Loewe’s signature design—immediately sets the tone for the Spring/Summer 2027 season: interest always arises from contrast. Upon crossing the threshold of this minimalist space to discover a sea of cycling caps, basketball jerseys, and boat shoes, the audience quickly realizes that classicism is not on the agenda. This literal setting, rooted in anachronism, serves as the perfect backdrop for a collection that boldly explores the collision of eras, geographies, and social statuses.
The Art of Cultural Clash
For their third runway show as creative directors, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez seem to have formulated a rather delightful working hypothesis: what if a 180-year-old institution suddenly decided to let loose and have some fun with its own legend? The American duo’s first year took the form of a radical laboratory. There, they tested the resilience of the brand’s foundations, pushing materials to their limits, saturating the color palette to the point of bordering on caricature, and showcasing artisanal techniques with almost clinical precision. Spring/Summer 2027 marks a turning point. The visual intensity subsides, the overall volume tones down a notch, but the depth of the message remains intact.
Their new aesthetic draws on a constant interplay between the majestic heritage of Spanish craftsmanship and the pragmatic ease of a resolutely American aesthetic. The result resembles a fascinating cultural translation error. It is as if the codes of a New England college campus or the weekend attire of Newport’s upper class had been filtered through a Madrid workshop. The most mundane pieces of the Western wardrobe are subtly subverted, shifted from their original purpose to achieve a new aesthetic dimension.
Demystifying the American Uniform
The collection gleefully takes on the “preppy” style canon, deconstructing it piece by piece to extract a new sense of strangeness. The polo shirt, a symbol of codified athletic elegance, undergoes a 180-degree rotation to be worn inside out, its collar now accentuating the nape of the neck in a reversal of anatomical landmarks. Strict basics like the pencil skirt or high-waisted pants are abruptly slit at the hips. They reveal the skin with the nonchalance of a neoprene wetsuit that’s just been unzipped after a diving session, infusing traditionally austere cuts with an unexpected sensuality.
This play on distortion also extends to accessories and outdoor styles. Capri pants are confidently paired with visible socks, while the traditional boat shoe—usually stiff—is transformed into a soft, spongy-textured piece. Chino pants, the very embodiment of sartorial banality, suddenly lose their innocence: they’re layered with flowing inserts finished with scarf-style hems. A stylistic shift that transforms a utilitarian garment into a complex piece. Even technical pieces like windbreakers—which inject bursts of bright colors typical of the outdoor world—lose their original purpose to clash with much more polished silhouettes.
When the Stadium Meets the Runway
The intrusion of the sports world into haute couture is not a new concept, but McCollough and Hernandez approach it through the lens of their own transatlantic vocabulary. The “varsity” look is definitely present, but it’s systematically subverted before it becomes too obvious or literal. The most spectacular example of this hybridization is undoubtedly the treatment of the basketball jersey. Stripped of its athletic ruggedness, it transforms into a tiered evening gown, cut from delicate chiffon. The generous proportions typical of sports courts give way to a fluidity reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties, all accentuated by pearl-embroidered trims featuring tie-dye patterns. Sportswear thus acquires the elegance of a cocktail outfit while retaining a raw honesty in its lines.
This sophistication of the elementary finds another echo in an obvious fascination with the seaside world. The duo delivers a technical and visual feat through striped shirts and dresses made entirely of glass beads. The drape of these pieces has been meticulously studied to replicate the heavy, damp, and clingy sensation of a bath towel just pulled out of the water. This reinterpretation perfectly illustrates the house’s current approach: taking a familiar sensation—linked to comfort or practicality—and challenging the workshops to transform it into a creation of absolute refinement.
Leather as the Anchor
Amid these clashes of styles and these seaside-inspired reinterpretations, leather serves as the necessary anchor—the earthy force that connects the collection to the brand’s historical foundations. A suede jacket explicitly echoes the label’s very first forays into ready-to-wear in the early 1960s. Yet this is neither a dusty homage nor a simple reissue. The designers have reimagined the garment’s architecture by applying the refined aesthetic they are currently developing, cutting into the material with a distinctly contemporary edge.
The suppleness of the leather is showcased in flowing jackets, cinched with bold straps that give structure to the silhouette. Elsewhere, a long overshirt crafted from caramel-colored suede catches the eye. Its cut maintains a deliberate blurring of the lines between outerwear and a dress, and it is precisely this refusal to choose—this ambiguity of function—that gives it its allure.
Outlining a New Look
At the end of this third season, a fundamental question continues to hang in the air: what is the true identity of the person who dresses in Loewe today? Under Jonathan Anderson’s leadership, the fluidity and intellectual quirkiness of the wardrobe had ultimately defined an instantly recognizable silhouette. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are still in the process of defining it. Their artistic strokes are becoming more assertive, and the portrait gains clarity with each runway show, but their approach is fundamentally different.
This Spring/Summer 2027 collection sketches the profile of a muse who is far more visceral and decidedly less concerned with presentation. She approaches fashion instinctively. She’s the kind of person who can slip into a high-fashion piece with the nonchalance of a raincoat, or to wear a simple cycling cap, pulled down low and tight against her forehead, with the poise that others would reserve for a formal hat in the stands at Ascot.
American designers have realized that it’s pointless to lock the brand into a rigid mold or to launch into lengthy lessons on heritage. Their true playground is flexibility. They test the institution’s ability to accumulate paradoxes without the structure collapsing. The practical clashes with the precious; the old world observes the new; the craftsmanship of the Iberian Peninsula assimilates the culture of North American campuses. All these elements coexist within the same temporal and visual space, creating not chaos, but a vital energy. To move forward, this century-old institution doesn’t need to be reminded of its past; it needs sparks and friction to keep moving.