With scrubbed faces and hair held back by rolled and knotted white scarves, the models at Loewe looked fresh from a day at the Eden Roc spa. That impression was backed up by Spanish designer José Enrique Oña Selfa s concentration on timely, short silhouettes—tunics, sack dresses, wraps—and further locked in by the details. The show s colorful silk floral prints, for instance, were trimmed with thick white piping that put one in mind of terrycloth robes.
Loewe began 160 years ago as a Madrid saddlery, and making sense of the house signature in a spring collection isn t necessarily an easy proposition. Oña Selfa didn t offer any definitive solutions, but working that same flower motif, he finessed the challenge, embroidering super-lightweight suede with silver thread or appliquéing foil-thin silver patent onto a halter dress and a coat. If his dresses got tricky with their cowl necks and double-belts, or tangles of yarn-like fringe, his leathers never did.
