Loewe show SS21

Loewe SHOW-IN-A-BOX is a portable, cloth-covered archive box containing elements that translate the creative process of the Spring/Summer 2021 Men’s Runway and Women’s Pre-collection fashion show. In lieu of a traditional runway show, the unconventional format portrays the collection, from the initial inspiration to the show setting. Twelve dividers separate the content which includes: a letter from the Creative Director, Jonathan Anderson; a notebook describing the collection’s inspiration; flatpack, die-cut silhouettes of the looks and accessories; a set of postcards which display the shoes; reference cards detailing the collection’s colour schemes and materials; a pattern for look 23; profiles of the Loewe team; a cardboard record player with steel gramophone needle and a 7″ soundtrack record narrated by Dr James Fox; a foldable, pop-up show and, finally, the show ‘invite’ in the form of a poster.

Loewe SHOW-ON-THE-WALL is a life-size representation of the Spring/Summer 2021 Women’s fashion collection housed in an oversized, brown cardboard box within which lies a set of elements to be assembled upon a wall. A classic art portfolio has been customised by a silkscreen reproduction of Steven Meisel’s 1999 Vogue Italia story ‘Portrait of a Symphony’, which contains a set of sixteen ‘character’ posters, each of which have been silkscreened on blueback paper in five colours, with variations of fluorescent, phosphorescent and metallic inks. The folder is accompanied by a wallpaper roll, designed by Anthea Hamilton, and border featuring the collection looks; a toolkit consisting of a scissors, bag, wallpaper brush and glue powder; a catalogue detailing the collection; the sheet music for Thomas Tallis’s 1570 choral work ‘Spem in alium’ and a beetroot scented ceramic.

For both projects, the aim has been to create something as tangible as a fashion show, distributing the same amount of work that goes into every collection, while finding a format that is more appropriate and relevant to the current pandemic situation.

Michaël Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak established M/M (Paris) as a graphic design studio in 1992.

M/M (Paris) has developed collaborations across cultural fields such as art, music, fashion, architecture, design and theatre. Amzalag and Augustyniak conceive their work as a sustained body. They understand their practice to be in the production of a series of signs, images as signifying entities, which they are constantly reshuffling to create their own language. Rejecting the simple service-providing framework, they encourage a productive relationship with their clients who commission them to inspire experiences, and have thus built a number of long-term relationships.

M/M (Paris)’s works are in the collection of institutions such as Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Design Museum and Tate Modern in London and Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami. Eight years after the publication of M to M of M/M (Paris) (2012), Thames & Hudson publishes its Volume II, a 456-page book that completes the monographic study of the art and design duo.