Everything
If anyone was going to turn the art of reading into an act of sensual display, it’s going to be Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson. And who best to manifest this than the man who became the face of modern erotic literature, Jamie Dornan aka Christian Grey himself?
In several BTS shots shared by creative director Jonathan Anderson, the Irish actor is spotted casually kicking back handsomely enjoying a good book in head-to-toe Loewe. “Jamie. What are ye reading?” asks Anderson from behind the camera.
Joining the Golden Globe-nominated Irish actor is multi-hyphenate musician Omar Apollo. While reading isn’t actually a part of the primary campaign shots, it is perhaps the best prelude to a campaign we could have hoped for.
Apollo’s book is Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka while Dornan is deep into pages of James Frey’s autobiography, My Friend Leonard.
But to the campaign itself…
Lensed by David Sims, the campaign features Dornan and Apollo each holding what the press release describes as “symbolic objects”. What they symbolise however is up to the viewer to decipher.
Dornan nurses a triangle in one shot while Apollo loosely grips a book in another. The sets are reflective of the reductionist approach that Loewe takes to fashion – its removal of one detail in lieu for another that unsettles the gaze, creating feelings of the uncanny. Yet at the same time, they retain a sense of classic styling.
The story behind the campaign finds its inspiration in the artworks of Vietnamese/American artist Julien Nguyen. Their painterly quality, expressed in the soft focus imagery and composition of the figures within the shots.
Nguyen’s work, which were essays combining art history and science fiction in settings of contemporary life, and whose illustrations were also the inspiration behind the Fall Winter 2023 collection.
