L is for Luxury and Loewe

Andrew Lamb/catwalking.com

British designer Stuart Vevers spared no cost at his debut show for Loewe today. Inside the main hall of Paris's Ecole de Medecine, waiters in white coats served champagne and fresh raspberry juice to wash down cucumber sandwiches and tiny madeleines. Guests sat at tables in a democratic fashion while models stepped gingerly down a grand marble staircase in chunky, sculpted heels and brandishing unbelievably luxurious handbags. Some were trimmed in fox fur, others had sterling silver chain handles. The clothes were equally opulent: suede t-shirt dresses, feather-embroidered, sweatshirts made of fox fur. The color palette, vacillating between dark indigo, bright orange and teal, was supposedly inspired by Antonioni's film The Red Desert and also alluded to Loewe's Spanish history. At it's heart, Loewe is a leather house--kind of Spain's answer to Hermes--and clearly Loewe owner LVMH would like to have it's own version of Hermes in their portfolio. If anyone can deliver that kind of quality, especially in accessories, Vevers can.