Why museum when you can come here? Yeah, that’s the question. Because Loewe’s brand-new store, sorry, the Casa Loewe, on Avenue Montaigne in Paris mixes luxury retail vibes with the intimacy and sophisticated whimsicality of an art collector’s home: featuring iconic interior design pieces by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld and Isamu Noguchi alongside ready-to-wear, shoes, jewellery, artistic rugs, installations, paintings, ceramics, and even wall panels of the British modernistic Geometry of Fear. This one is for all the art geeks with good taste out there.
Ok, that since the Covid-19 lockdowns people are longing for more special and unique experiences outside the house is nothing new. The office has to offer an additional advantage, otherwise everyone just works remotely, no problem. Going to the cinema to rewatch emblematic movies together instead of Netflix, relatable. Bars, club, theatre. Even going to the supermarket gained a new social value. But although the crazy times that made time stand still were already five years ago, Loewe managed once again to bring this concept to a new level: with their Casa Loewe Montaigne, shopping purposely feels like a whole new activity. Like an adventure, a journey, and a thoughtful break in between the day.
And that, to be honest, is simply genius. Because instead of rushing into the store or instead of doing the impulsive click at home in front of the laptop, here, in the Avenue Montaigne, Paris’ luxury street, the guests and clients can stroll around an area that is a total of 562 square metres. An area that is dressed in ceramic tiles shimmering in all kinds of greens, blues, and oranges. That is dressed in silver, marble, brass, and iron details making the surrounding shift textures, light, and breath. It’s a contrast of sleek, modern concrete and warm, intimate, handcrafted finishes that are embraced through the sun that falls through the huge series of windows. Just wandering around is already supposed to give you some sort of peace and slowness.
Wait. Don’t paint the mental image in your mind too quickly. Because that’s not even the highlight. In the centre of the store are, yes, the Spanish House’s pieces themselves. But there is also the carefully selected collection of artworks from both interior design and visual art history that is displayed organically in between the clothing rails, shelves and fitting rooms. To summarise it for the interior lovers, for example: there is the red and blue, machine-like armchair designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld in 1917. You know, the one that looks like an abstract construction of black lines and colourful surfaces. It’s this kind of piece that everyone should know, or should hear about once in their life. Then there are the Mira and Conoid Cushion chairs by George Nakashima from 1961. Two chairs that are known for their minimalist, elegant design made from American black walnut wood. There are lights by Isamu Noguchi — timeless, subtle, calming. Berlin club chairs, original, of course. Rugs woven by the British textile artist John Allen and a series of Loewe’s own signature creations such as a tufted leather bench. The last one is obviously to embrace the House’s incredible leather manufacturing skills, if anyone didn’t get that yet.
For the arts lovers at the same time, we have the installation Gelbe Modellierung (1985) by German artist Franz Erhard Walther. A monumental cotton wall featuring fused sections of trouser legs and jackets. We have large-scale ceramics by South African artist Zizipho Poswa that explore the traditions, rituals and matrilineal heritage of the Xhosa culture. We have vivid paintings by Walter Price, and we have Henry Moore’s wall panel Two Standing Figures (1948), an artwork that is dark, progressive, showing abstraction of the human figure and is situated within British Modernism and the post-World War II movement known as The Geometry of Fear. We have Takayuki Sakiyama, Hafu Matsumoto, Ernst Gamperl, John Ward, Domingo Tótora, Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley.
As you can see, what is featured here is real art and design history. And the more you’re into that topic, the more fun it is strolling around the new Casa Loewe in Paris. So instead of going to the Louvre, or any other overwhelming museum, maybe just pick the more chill, peaceful and slow approach of experiencing art. In the Casa Loewe, at least, you won’t get run over by a bunch of tourists. A fact that definitely makes you appreciate this new, multimedia, conceptual way of shopping even more. We, at least, are obsessed with it, and can’t wait to see what the Spanish House can enchant us with next.
