Beauty and Fashion Dubai

TO BRIGHTEN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER… Acids is a new collection that showcases Loewe’s skill in the art of dyeing leather. Loewe is the master of bringing strong, bright colour to leather: it has been saturating soft, smooth hides with densely pigmented dyes for generations. The Acids collection puts this knowhow in the spotlight. Its electric palette pops with youthful energy: the richest, purest, most intense shades of red, yellow, green, blue and magenta. Acids presents the ‘Amazona’ and ‘Dunas’ bags in these dazzling colours, their metal hardware – zips, rings, clips, padlocks – treated with an antique effect.

Embodying the spectacular colour range of the Acids collection is the symbol of the peacock. The peacock plays an important role in Loewe’s visual heritage. In the middle of the 20th century, Loewe’s then creative director Perez de Rozas was busy turning Loewe’s store window displays into creative landmarks, their high-octane Hollywood glamour dazzling customers and passers-by alike. He used the peacock as a central motif in his windows – an emblem that Loewe revisits this Christmas, with windows that directly reference the sumptuous allure of de Rozas’ heyday. In January, the peacock will once again take centre stage in Loewe’s windows, its long, fine tail feathers emblazoned with the colours of the Acids collection: a figure from Loewe’s history made wholly contemporary.

Loewe has dedicated two of its ateliers in Madrid to the task of creating these peacocks for its window displays. One team set about designing and sculpting the body of the bird, while the other selected and assembled feathers which were dyed in the colours of the Acids collection.

These vibrant feathers were then individually attached to each peacock by hand, in arrangements designed to complement the bag each one will accompany in the window. Loewe has enlisted photographers and filmmakers to document this painstaking process in its entirety as a tribute to the extraordinary levels of craftsmanship at work in its studios, where such traditional skills are kept alive to be enjoyed by the modern world. These rainbow-coloured peacocks will stand proudly in the windows on sets that reference classic elements taken from Spain’s rich architectural history, emphasising Loewe’s heritage.

Accompanying the collection is a psychedelic video that amplify Acids’ rich, super-saturated colours in a kaleidoscopic montage full of double-exposed images. In a nod to the Indian origins of the peacock, it features a Bollywood soundtrack.

The Acids collection and its peacock displays will arrive in Loewe stores and outlets in January 2014.