'Crafted World' offers a glimpse into LOEWE's frequent rendezvous with craft

LOEWE, one of the world’s most influential fashion houses, stages a celebration of its rich 178-year history, Spanish heritage and unwavering commitment to the skill of the hand, with Crafted World—the house’s first public exhibition. Set in the Shanghai Exhibition Centre in China, the show is a melting pot of art and culture, specifically tracing LOEWE’s legacy of creative flair and fun in craft via an interactive journey through space, time and materials. The exhibition is curated by the house’s Creative Director Jonathan Anderson as "a homage to all the craftspeople around the world that have dedicated their lives to the handmade". “Crafted World offers visitors a chance to immerse themselves in iconic designs and cultural collaborations that have illuminated LOEWE’s evolution from its founding as a leather-making collective in Madrid in 1846 to becoming one of the world’s leading luxury fashion houses,” reads the official release.

The exhibition space ushers the visitors from the LOEWE 19th century origins, the opening of its first store in Shanghai, China, to its 21st renaissance guided by Anderson. The story that unfolds in the backdrop of a celebration of craft and artistic techniques passed down through the ages, is a window to Spain, the behind the scenes of the atelier and what it takes to bring a design to life. Crafted World presents a series of looks from Anderson’s tenure as creative director and a multimedia survey of the house’s support for crafts—culminating in a series of nine interactive rooms that invite the audience inside the artworks and the worlds of LOEWE and its collaborations.

Spanning over 1600 square metres and the courtyard of the Shanghai Exhibition Centre, the exhibition design is conceived in partnership with international architecture firm OMA. The show is dotted with surprising elements such as super-sized leather sculptures, an ascending ‘pronunciation tunnel’ showing visitors how to say ‘LO-EV-EH,’ a series of knee-high exhibits for children to interact with and a moving, suspended flower garden set inside an infinite hall of mirrors. Crafted Worlds is curated around six thematic chapters that speak of the house’s approach to fashion and the culture of craft.

Born from the Hand

The viewers first encounter LOEWE’s evolution from a leather-making collective to its current identity. The journey is delineated through a series of key product designs from the house, such as early leather pieces and the first editions of Amazona, Flamenco and Puzzle bags, alongside architectural models, archive photographs and works from Pablo Picasso and Pedro Almodóvar. In juxtaposition are more recent collaborations with Anthea Hamilton and costumes for Rihanna and Beyoncé.

Welcome to Spain

Welcome to Spain is a gateway to LOEWE’s home county—its sights, sounds and culture. In this chapter, the background is composed of campaign photographs and videos by Steven Meisel, Tyler Mitchell and Gray Sorrenti, sculptures of Barcelona’s Olympic Park, the glistening blues of the Mediterranean Sea, and Andalusian palacios donned in Moorish-inspired tiles. The country’s craft traditions are placed in dialogue with the landscapes that inspire them. In the chapter structured around six tree trunks, Basket and Bucket bags made in collaboration with Spanish artisans are presented with heritage lebrillo bowls, Picasso’s ceramics and sea animal accessories from LOEWE’s free-spirited Paula’s Ibiza line.

The Atelier

This chapter takes the audience through the many stages that led to the creation of LOEWE’s iconic designs. It begins with a library of leathers, moving on to its cutting, trimming, painting and assembling—laying bare the tools needed to cut by hand and the hours of prototyping and testing that ensure the durability of every bag. The Atelier ends with a two-metre-tall recreation of the Howl’s Moving Castle bag created especially for the exhibition, depicting how the atelier re-interpreted the castle from the 2004 Studio Ghibli classic with its signature elements.

Fashion Without Limits

A glimpse of the house’s avant-garde creativity and sculptural forms, the chapter features 69 looks from both men’s and womenswear collections on mannequins in dialogue with works of art from the LOEWE art collection: William Turnbull’s bronze sculpture Idol (1956), Haegue Yang’s textile mobile The Intermediate – Dangling Hairy Hug (2018) and Zizipho Poswa’s glazed earthenware Mireille Kamyanya, Congo (2022). Three digital totems with portrait-format screens broadcast videos from the runway as if the models were walking through the space.

United in Craft

The joy of making with one’s hand resides at the core of United in Craft. In this section, an array of works from the annual LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize and videos sharing their stories take the stage. The repository includes the coloured glazes of Ming and Qing Dynasty ceramics that inspired 2023’s Chinese Monochrome Collection, and LOEWE’s collaborations with Ecuadorian tapestry artists, Indian ribbon-makers, South African basket-makers and Chinese bamboo weavers, among others. The beaded Elephant bags of the Knot on My Planet charity collaboration, made by Kenyan and Tanzanian craftspeople and the repaired baskets of the Salone del Mobile 2022 exhibition Weave, Restore and Renew represent a dedication to sustainability.

Unexpected Dialogues

The final chapter is a series of nine rooms that immerse the audience in the visionary worlds that have inspired LOEWE’s many collaborations. Unexpected Dialogues features a reimagination of master potter Ken Price’s New Mexico studio, Japanese ceramicists, Suna Fujita’s fairytale scenes hidden in the walls, floor-to-ceiling tactile woven carpets by John Allen, jade quarry celebrating the ancient craft of jade carving and LOEWE’s recent Lunar New Year collection, a Joe Brainard collage brought to life, and a magical Studio Ghibli dreamworld. Three rooms are allotted to masters of the 19th-century British Arts & Crafts movement: William Morris’ wallpapers are enlivened through animated projections, the nature-inspired tiles of William De Morgan cover a room and a moving, suspended garden set inside an infinite hall of mirrors is inspired by C.F.A. Voysey.

Passing through the curated gift shop, the visitors finally emerge into a courtyard adorned with half a dozen of Álvaro Leiro’s reinterpretations of the traditional Galician raincoats woven from reeds, straw and briar—putting an end to an immersive experience through an ever-growing timeline of countless creative interventions.

‘Crafted World’ is on display until May 5, 2024, at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre before travelling worldwide.