LOEWE @ New Barroco Limited Edition Line

 Loewe launched a new Barroco limited-edition line of bags, scarves and leather goods inspired by the baroque heritage of Spanish art and architecture. Thanks to the Loewe PR's and the team's effort who transformed the Space Gallery into a journey of Baroque Rennaisance. With its florid, curvaceous forms, melodramatic poses and shameless appeal to the senses, baroque was an aesthetic movement that dominated art and  architecture in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Spanish culture seemed particularly well suited to the baroque, and many of the country’s most  celebrated artists worked within that era and sensibility: Zurbarán, Murillo,  Ribera, Ribalta, Velázquez, Valdés Leal, Carreño, Claudio Coello and Meléndez all helped to promote Spanish painting to global prominence through baroque art.

The passion of Spanish baroque was already in evidence in Loewe’s AW2012 collection, in which its sensuous, winding forms were embossed on the exterior of an Amazona bag and printed onto scarves, skirts and dresses. These proved so popular that Loewe’s creative director Stuart Vevers has decided to launch a special limited-edition collection that pushes the aesthetic further.

The new Barroco line showcases the incredible level of skill in leather craft available to Loewe. The traditions of handworking leather have been handed down at Loewe from one generation of artisans to the next since 1846. But the process of hand-embossing leather is a particularly demanding art that stretches back even further than the founding of Loewe: all the way back to the eighth century, when the Arab occupation of southern Spain brought a highly sophisticated culture of leather craft from North Africa.

 

 

Córdoba was the capital of the area now known as Andalucia, one of the most technically advanced cities in the world that led the way in the production of leather. The city has remained synonymous with the highest achievements in the working of luxury leather ever since – which is why Loewe is using the highly skilled artisans of Córdoba to emboss the leather goods in its Barroco line.

First of all, the Córdoban craftsmen draft a baroque motif in intricate detail on paper. This is placed over the leather that is to be embossed and the  pattern scored through onto its surface using a sharp-edged tool. The leather is moistened to make it more malleable and an artisan will slowly begin building up a relief shape using a series of special tools to raise and lower the surface of the leather according to the demands of the design. It’s a time-consuming process that has changed little over the centuries.

 

Every piece in the Loewe Barroco collection is decorated with the scrolling, florid shapes of the baroque. On the Amazona, they are either embossed on the bag’s surface, or printed on its leather lining and tiny padlock. They are embossed on the patches securing the handles of the Arco bag; printed on the napa surface of the Flamenco, or on its twin tassels; and on the Amazona wallet, printed on the leather interior pocket. The Barroco line also includes tassel keyrings, charms and notebooks, and scarves in silk, cotton and cashmere.