“Nocturnal is a great word—this is where we are able to see people when they are free. It’s not a work environment, it’s where you express yourself, where you let go,” Jonathan Anderson tells Vogue as he steps off the Eurostar in Paris.
If you haven’t already read Vogue contributing editor Michelle Ruiz’s take on the Bloomberg report that people are working a minimum of two-and-a-half additional hours per day during the pandemic around the globe, Anderson’s entreaty that we indulge our out-of-office selves will serve as the perfect entrée.
“We are here now,” the designer adds. “The virus will have its path, we cannot control it, but it does not mean that we cannot be fantasists. We have to let go a bit.”
It’s the day before his Loewe SS22 menswear collection will be unveiled (via a livestream and an accompanying show-in-a-box). Expect a fashion lineup that crackles with the electrifying energy of nighttime itself. Alongside a neon snap bracelet—a hint to the Day-Glo paper band you’d find on your wrist the day after a rave—and glow-in-the-dark stars, the Loewe SS22 menswear box contains two cherishable art books that bear special meaning for Anderson.
The first, a window into the fast-living character of the season, is by British photographer David Sims. Its pages share Loewe’s “new type of flamboyant boy—this idea of realness, this idea of different body types, different kinds of genders, different types of sexuality,” the designer explains. “The whole point of this collection is that I want people to look at it and want to be there. It’s about hedonism; it’s about trying to rediscover ourselves; it’s ultimately about letting go of something that we cannot control. For me, David has this amazing ability to be both a conceptual artist and photographer. These images are very personal.”
The second tome is dedicated to New York-based German painter Florian Krewer, whose works (some of which are rousingly titled ‘Break free’, ‘Flying high’, ‘Celebration of life’, ‘New day’) herald spontaneous encounters. “He has an incredible way of capturing youth, emotional connections and movement,” Anderson explains.
Indeed, the designer’s current summer inspiration list reads like a who’s who of new-generation art world stars who are tuning in to a wider cultural need to feel excitement again. “We’re in a fallout moment,” he adds. “There is creativity everywhere. That is what’s amazing about life in general—you can always find something.”
From the soundtrack to the season, to the young authors and painters to know now—here, Jonathan Anderson shares an access-all-areas pass inside his SS22 Loewe menswear moodboard.
Watch:
The Holy Mountain (1973) by Alejandro Jodorowsky
“[Vogue photographer] Juergen Teller recommended I watch Alejandro Jodorowsky’s [surreal fantasy film] The Holy Mountain. It’s probably one of the most awe-inspiring films I’ve seen in terms of how visually arresting it is.”
Read:
Édouard Louis
“I love the work of French writer Édouard Louis [28-year-old author of The End of Eddy (Harvill Secker, 2014), History of Violence (Harvill Secker, 2016) and Who Killed My Father (Harvill Secker, 2018)] for his brutal honesty and non-mainstream approach to life.”
Listen:
Cosmic Gate, N-Trance, Robert Miles, Faithless
“I have an obsession with house music at the moment because I feel like it’s something that you cannot just naturally experience on the radio, you need to be around people. I’ve been listening to Cosmic Gate’s Fire Wire [2001], and tracks by N-Trance, Robert Miles and Faithless—it’s exactly this kind of energy that I long for. Of course, [these sounds are] nostalgic, but there is something in the freedom of dancing to music like that—of surrendering to something else.”
See:
German-born, New York-based painter Florian Krewer
“[When unveiling a new collection] we would usually build a runway set, which becomes the backdrop. This season, instead, I wanted to help someone produce a book.
“I’ve been following Florian’s work for quite a long time now. For me, he is one of today’s most inspiring painters. His way of looking at people is mesmerising, particularly the way he captures youth, emotional connections and movement. His viewpoint on the body is incredibly sharp. I also love that one of his artworks is entitled ‘Flamboyant boy’.”
British painter Jadé Fadojutimi
“We featured [28-year-old] British painter Jadé Fadojutimi in Loewe’s SS21 campaign—I’m fascinated by her use of colour and the way in which she shows excitement within her work. In turn, there’s nothing more exciting than when you look at a painting and you have no idea how [the artist’s] mind works. Jadé is a very good example of that, there’s an energy to [her work] that is so spontaneously new to me. She’s incredibly important at the moment in terms of painting because she is part of a new generation that is really moving something forward on how brushstrokes can be applied to a screen.”
Go:
Jennifer Packer, The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing
“I recently saw [37-year-old American artist] Jennifer Packer’s show at the Serpentine Gallery in London. She is a fantastic painter who, again, captures the idea of movement in a way that gives an immediacy to the characters that she portrays—even with flowers.”
