Loewe Pre-Fall 2026 Ad Campaign

Volcanic Tension

Review of Loewe Pre-Fall 2026 Ad Campaign by Art Directors Carina Frey and Stefanie Barth and Photographer Talia Chetrit with models Eva Victor, Levon Hawke, Seydou Sarr, and Isla Johnston

For the Fall 2026 precollection, Loewe continues refining the visual and emotional language emerging under Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, trading spectacle for something more tactile, instinctive, and quietly charged. Photographed by Talia Chetrit on the volcanic terrain of Tenerife, the campaign transforms the island’s rugged coastlines and strange architectural geometries into a stage for contrasts: softness against severity, sensuality against utility, precision against spontaneity. The result feels less like a conventional luxury campaign than a study in texture, atmosphere, and physical presence.

Chetrit’s photography thrives on imbalance in the best possible way. Her images shift between distant landscapes and claustrophobic close-ups, between sharply composed still lifes and almost awkwardly intimate portraits. Models recline across stacked loungers, stare directly into the lens beneath oversized hats and wraparound sunglasses, or stand against crashing coastlines with a kind of detached confidence. That tension between natural ease and constructed image-making gives the campaign its pulse. Nothing feels overly polished, even though every detail is carefully calibrated.

Tenerife itself becomes one of the campaign’s strongest assets. The volcanic cliffs, grey skies, and saturated blues and greens ground the collection in an elemental reality that sharpens the boldness of the styling. Against these dramatic backdrops, Hernandez and McCollough’s Fall 2026 precollection reveals its central idea clearly: luxury that feels lived in rather than preserved. Leather outerwear appears supple and weighty, striped shirting hangs with looseness and movement, and sportswear references retain a functional sharpness even as they are abstracted through Loewe’s experimental lens.

The accessories remain the clearest expression of the house’s evolving identity. Bags are treated not as supporting products, but as sculptural objects with distinct personalities. The expanded Amazona 180, the Layer Flamenco clutch, and the Scarf bag all emphasize shape manipulation and material tactility over overt branding. Even when photographed in isolation — resting on conveyor belts or tucked against bare skin — they maintain a quiet physical authority. Loewe’s longstanding mastery of leatherwork continues to anchor the campaign, even as the creative direction shifts into new territory.

What makes the imagery particularly compelling is its willingness to embrace oddity without announcing itself as avant-garde. A close-up portrait framed by stacked plastic loungers becomes unexpectedly elegant; a banana beside dripping honey and melting ice cubes borders on surrealist humor without tipping into gimmick. These moments echo the offbeat sensibility Hernandez and McCollough cultivated at Proenza Schouler, now filtered through Loewe’s heritage of craft and material experimentation. The campaign never feels nostalgic for Jonathan Anderson’s era, but neither does it reject the playful intelligence he embedded into the house.

If there is a slight inconsistency, it lies in the balance between intimacy and editorial distance. Some portraits possess an immediacy that feels emotionally revealing, while others operate more as stylized fashion tableaux. The campaign occasionally shifts between these registers so abruptly that its rhythm becomes uneven. Yet even that fragmentation contributes to the sense that Loewe is actively evolving rather than settling into a fixed formula.

More importantly, the campaign succeeds in establishing tone. Rather than relying on overt reinvention, Hernandez and McCollough seem focused on sharpening sensation — the feeling of leather against skin, wind against fabric, volcanic rock against saturated colour. There is rigor here, but also looseness; precision, but also instinct. In an industry increasingly dominated by either hyper-minimal restraint or algorithmic excess, Loewe’s Fall 2026 precollection instead proposes something slower, stranger, and more tactile.