Los Angeles-based artist Richard Hawkins provided the backdrop to Jonathan Anderson’s A/W 2024 menswear show for Loewe, seeing the house’s heartthrob muses – from Jamie Dornan and Josh O’Connor to Omar Apollo and Manu Rios – become the subject of his delirious, erotically-infused collages, which riff on contemporary celebrity culture. Their iPhone selfies, sometimes shirtless, were combined with Hawkins’ fixations, among them Roman statuary, French decadence and the gleaming hunks from 1980s teen magazines, and beamed onto screens recalling stained-glass windows. At the end of the runway, a collection of paintings by the artist was deemed by Anderson as ‘the altar’.
Richard Hawkins x Loewe: ‘A breaking away from formality’
Hawkins’ vibrant works appear across the A/W 2024 collection, decorating a version of Anderson’s Puzzle tote – an origami-like riff on the house’s signature handbag which folds entirely flat – or daubed across slouchy knitted jumpers and intricately caviar-beaded hoodies and sweatpants. They were woven into a collection which Anderson described as ‘a breaking away from formality and the idea of a single look’, evoking freewheeling teenage style and their poster-covered bedrooms (indeed, one layered look recalled the pile-up of clothes that might be found on the floor).
‘Modern life has become a collage,’ the Northern Irish designer continued. ‘I’m looking at this idea of iconography. It’s all about different types of validation… how we perceive ourselves to the outside world. It’s a new psychology. What that means in the future, I don’t know – but I think it can be exciting.’
This article appears in the November 2024 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands from 10 October, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.
Loewe’s A/W 2024 menswear collection is available from mytheresa.com and loewe.com.
