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Loewe’s Latino Restraint

There’s a new take on quiet Latino style that’s been going on Madrid, where arguably Spain’s most famous luxury brand, Loewe, is enjoying a delicate, brilliantly-colored rebound under a thoughtful British designer.

On Saturday, Oct. 2, in Paris, Loewe’s creative director Stuart Vevers presented a spring 2011 collection where polish and laid-back femininity were the themes and lollipop colors, albeit mostly in leather, was the color palette.

Madrid-based Loewe has always been a fundamentally leather driven business, and to his credit Vevers, unlike several of his predecessors, has embraced this and created upbeat lightweight interpretations in a optimistic way. These are clothes ideal for spring in the Balearics or the Bahamas.

Kissing pink ostrich leather surgeon’s shirts and minis, dreamily cut sunset red slip dresses and micro ruffled cocktails all looked suitably wistful.

In silk, Vevers also offered spotted pajama looks, and great purple butterfly on lime minis, and, in particular, a charming mini cocktail on this season’s most elegant model, Slovakia’s Kinga Rajzak. They all had wit and invention.

Staged like a café society cocktail in a cut stone foyer of a Paris university of medicine, with white-jacketed waiters serving champagne and pea risotto to editors perched at circular French bistro tables, the collection was chic, and in step with Loewe’s DNA.

Puckered mini flowers used in bright leather dresses or sleek ballet shoes and a bolero jackets added to the sense of poise.

Yet, while astutely judged, there was an air of a designer playing too far inside his limits. Reined-in chic may be right for straightened economic times, where excess seems a tad vulgar, but at a certain point, restraint restrains imagination, and given Vevers’ potential, one expected a little more oomph, spin and novelty from this show, and collection.

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