Loewe Spring 2023 Ad Campaign Review

Review of Loewe Spring 2023 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Jonathan Anderson and Photographer David Sims with model Taylor Russell

Loewe deconstructs the ideas of pose and performance with its new Spring 2023 women’s campaign. Photographer David Sims captures actor Taylor Russell.

Taking as its basis the intersection of Russell’s identity as an actor, an inhabiter of characters, and the fashion campaign’s inherently staged and product-forward quality, Sims’ imagery explores a surreal and hyperbolically staged arrangement of space and object. The set design creates a room that feels out of touch with reality: baroque furniture pieces clash with DIY stage design moments like a backdrop obviously taped up to the wall or a swathe of butcher block paper draped randomly over a settee. Among this space, Russell’s poses are over the top, almost a parody of modeling and fashion editorial as she holds difficult postures and presents regally her Loewe handbags. The questioning of the connection between image and reality is especially poignant in the collection’s pixeliated hoodie or life-like resin anthuriums, which suggest that we are unable to trust our eyes.

Accompanying these layered portraits is a series of still-life photographs that find the collection’s star bags and shoes in curious conversation with a beguiling assortment of objects: mostly antique silver table ware, but also pea pods, flowers (real or fake?), and the beautifully sculpted buttocks of classical marble and bronze male torsos. In addition to simply being striking compositions, these images recontextualize the status of these items as commodities and invite us to question our own desire.

Loewe and Jonathan Anderson have always shared an artistic bent, but they’ve been on an especially artful kick recently. This campaign nicely echoes the recent Spring 2023 men’s campaign, continuing to expand the brand’s mastery of balancing the surreal and the totally desirable at the heart of contemporary fashion consumerism.