Loewe Spring Summer 27

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180 Years of Loewe

20 October, 2026

Words by:

Sarah Palmieri

The second oldest of all the luxury houses brought its spring summer runway to Paris with a collection that leant gorpy but always kept things chic. A master of the old and the new, the house never stops refining its language.

It’s been just over a year since Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the duo who founded Proenza Schouler back in 2002, brought all their Americana to the Spanish house of Loewe. They arrived after a decade of rapid ramping up under none other than the great Jonathan Anderson, who is now twiddling away at his bar jackets for Dior.

Loewe was humming long before these new additions, though. In fact, this year marks its 180th anniversary. It began as a small leather workshop in Madrid in 1846, which makes it the second oldest luxury house still operating, beaten only by Hermès, founded in Paris nine years earlier in 1837. A few trivia points for the dinner party: Loewe is German for “lion,” the house became official supplier to the Spanish royal court in 1905, and it didn’t make a single piece of clothing until 1960. That first garment was a suede blazer.

So where do they sit now?

On October 2, during Paris Fashion Week, the scene was set (yet again) at the Château de Vincennes, a monstrosity of medieval architecture on the outskirts of Paris, for their spring summer 27 collection. Hernandez said, “The idea of the old world and the new world coming together.” Ultra-modern design set against old-school stone. Inside, architects Casper Mueller Kneer built a two-tiered circular arena of white scaffolding and sheer fabric, inspired by the 16th-century anatomical theatre in Padua, so the models circled close to the audience instead of marching down a straight line. “We wanted to build a show space that explored the unique energy of a stadium, arena, or theatre,” the pair said.

The designs took the classics (tailored pants, long flowing dresses, sheer skirts) and gave them a very modern, very Loewe twist. Much of it bordered on gorpy, with a slightly Demna-at-Balenciaga energy, especially when it came to the sunglasses! McCollough listed their New England youth and a ’90s spirit among the influences, and you could feel it in the plaid, the polos and the sporty anoraks. The 1960 suede blazer came back too, reworked in caramel.

Where the collection truly shines is where it turns away from tropes and linear thinking. Black pants with architecture that spills out at the waist and gives them weight. Short babydoll dresses that weave in and out like curtains. Sheer striped dresses made of glass beads, made with Cécile Feilchenfeldt, a 2025 finalist for the Loewe Foundation’s Craft Prize.

Clean lines came in bright colours and bold structure, like the metallic graded collars in orange and blue that appeared under knitwear and on a black coat. On the accessories side, keep an eye out for the new Pasito bag, a soft drawstring dustbag crossed with a structured box bag.

Loewe is clearly carrying on its shoe legacy, best epitomised by the balloon pump from fall 2022. My personal favourite this season was an open-toe red sandal topped with an oversized bow and finished with a curved heel.

Was it a 180-year kind of celebration? I don’t think so. But perhaps a refined language and a growing confidence in shaping exactly what that is far better than any theatrics.

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