Art and fashion are interminably connected, industries attached at the hip in their love of the visual medium. Cross-referencing is ever-present: fashion comments on the art world, artists engage in fashion work, and on and on. Thus, a fashion campaign centering on the works of the art gods is a tale as old as time, founded in the history of the industry. For luxury design house LOEWE, this connection seems apt. For their Spring/Summer 2023 menswear campaign, LOEWE is reaching into this historic collaboration, referencing past portraiture legends like William Nicholson and George Platt Lynes. LOEWE is painting a portrait, using menswear as their oils and pastels. 

Shot by David Sims, the SS23 men’s campaign puts the house’s artistry on full display. Featuring brand ambassadors Josh O’Connor and Stéphane Bak, Sims features the two sporting the brand’s menswear bests. As they languidly lounge on beds and pose sullenly on stools, the garments come alive. Each unbuttoned oxford and logo-branded pant gains a sense of creative immediacy, popping through the style of portraiture. They’re beautified, old-school images, holding true to the legacy of LOEWE. 

Inspiring the photo campaign is the work of two famous portraiture artists, with subtle references providing a creative undercurrent to the campaign. From the work of British painter William Nicholson, LOEWE injects the campaign with a marble-laden statuesque feeling. Models phase-shift from human figures to wax gods in their perfection. On the other hand, from American photographer George Platt Lynes, the campaign gains a sense of eroticism and charge. O’Connor and Bak become bodies entangled in one another, with grand sexuality oozing from these simple visuals. 

It’s no secret that art is an upper-crust, forbidding world. Something about the medium’s ephemerality, and its inability to be reproduced at scale, makes art so utterly elusive. Art fundamentally has some social stature, a token that the fashion world loves to cling to. Thus, for a brand focused on legacy and exclusivity like LOEWE, portraiture seems like an obvious choice for campaign branding. In tying itself to the art world, LOEWE has upped its social standing. They’ve gained some high-class clout.