Loewe's Fall 2023 Collection Is Designed to Make You Confused

Embrace illusion. Meet the new season’s take on trompe-l’œil.

It’s not a dress, it’s a dress — are yo u confused? Good.

Jonathan Anderson continues to play with perception in Loewe’s Fall 2023 collection. Riffing off trompe-l’œil, the illusory art style that champions hyperrealist, three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional plane, the new collection is replete with optical illusions. Dresses are printed onto a white sheath, which makes you look twice. It appears as if a model is wearing a lavender dress, for example, but upon second glance, it’s not really a lavender dress at all. Even a trench coat got a version of the illusion dress.

If Anderson wasn’t playing with trompe-l’œil with prints on dresses, then he toyed with texture. A two-tone set appears to be made of the most airy feathers, but it turns out to be covered in paillettes, a French term used for massive sequins. Some cardigans, which one can reasonably expect to be cozy and soft, looked like crumpled paper. One model emerged holding up her dress as if it were a blanket. Continuing to play with perception and texture, the fabric wasn’t quite as shiny as silk nor radiant as velvet… but some in-between, ultra-light-catching material.

Anyone who sees this collection is urged to question what clothes are versus what they look like. Of course, there were a few wardrobe staples and statement pieces that made it onto the runway, with our favorite being a very glittery overcoat.

The Fall 2023 show took place in a glossy, white interior with cubes on the runway. While these look similar to pixels dissolving on a video game screen, they are actually blocks of compressed confetti made by Italian artist Lara Favaretto.

“Exploring a space between monument and ruin, Favaretto often uses materials that are volatile or fragile to create works that embrace the inevitability of collapse,” a Loewe Instagram post reveals. “Each cube is made from solid confetti—without glue or armatures—compressed in a labor-intensive process over several hours by teams of people.”

Like the big red boots that recently seemed to be everywhere on the internet, some Loewe pieces seem to be pulled straight from a cartoon. Molded leather shirts looked like something an animated character would sport. One molded two-piece has an uncanny resemblance to Patrick from “SpongeBob.” Handbags didn’t resemble something animated from on screen, but they too were cartoonishly big. Looks were often styled with slouchy brown boots, that seemed to have been taken from the heels of Shrek or Flynn Rider in “Tangled.”

With Fall 2023, Loewe maintains its ability to be visually riveting. Puzzle bags, egg yolk heels, inflated sunglasses and nail-polish slippers are only a handful of brand items that previously gained cult-status for their uniqueness. The new collection continues to riff off illusion and design in the spirit trompe-l’œil, as it did with last season’s pixel hoodie.

See every look from the Loewe Fall 2023 collection below.

Loewe Fall 2023. Photo: Imaxtree