A WEAVE IN TIME: For its sixth project at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, Loewe and creative director Jonathan Anderson will continue to delve into craft, focusing this time on traditional weaving techniques.
Highlighted throughout “Weave, Restore, Renew” is the idea that repairing is central to being sustainable while bringing uniqueness and extra character, an approach that “sits right at the crossing of respect for the environment and respect for the product,” according to Anderson.
“Across this whole project, we celebrate the regenerative power of handwork. I am proud we have created a series of items that rewire the relation with time, wear and tear, delivering a message of evolution and transformation which is progressive and uplifting,” he continued.
Visitors to the international furniture and interior design trade show will be able to see leather, straw and paper turned into striking functional items.
For “Repaired in Spain,” the Spanish fashion house tasked artisans Idoia Cuesta, Belén Martínez, Santiago Besteiro, Juan Manuel Marcilla with breathing new life into 240 distressed baskets by mending them with leather strips.
Elsewhere, straw was the main material of the “Coroza” series of bags and baskets with distinctive fringing that nods to the ancestral technique of that name from the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia traditionally used to make raincoats, hats and baskets from pliable natural fibers.
In addition to these, 2019 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize finalist Young Soon Lee used recycled newspapers woven using the traditional Korean technique called Jiseung for a series of totes.
Shoppers in Milan will have first dibs on a selection of repaired baskets and small accessories starting Monday at the Loewe flagship on Via Monte Napoleone, with some also available on the brand’s e-commerce, before they become available in other cities including Tokyo, Seoul, New York and Paris.
The Salone del Mobile, which takes place from Tuesday to June 12 at the Fiera Milano exhibition center on the city’s outskirts, is celebrating this year its 60th edition and will be focusing on sustainability, a hot topic not only in fashion but also in design, its president Maria Porro told WWD earlier this year.
