When I met Stuart Vevers of Loewe recently at the launch of the Spanish luxury brand's flagship boutique in Mayfair it was our chance to have a good old catch up. Since he has moved to Madrid to be the creative director of Loewe he has left a social gap that is nigh on impossible to fill. There are not many fabulously be-spectacled, be-suited secret agent lookalikes with broad Carslisle accents in fashion.
Stuart is a wonderful designer. What he doesn't know about what makes a good handbag would fit on the head of a pin. When he was in London in March we talked handbags (as usual) and while showing me his various spins on the Amazona bag (below, from backstage at his SS11 collection by Jason Lloyd Evans)....
...we also talked about his new handbag launch for Autumn/Winter 2011, the Flamenco. The lucky bag - there's two of them at the top of this post being clutched to model Mariacarla Boscono's naked body for Loewe's new advertising campaign - come in various colour pops and colour block combinations, and it really is as cute and fun as a puppy. As always Stuart has collaborated with Katie Grand, who in turn has worked with her best buddies Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot to realise the images which are currently being released at one a day on Loewe's Facebook page. I like how they used Madrid's Ritz hotel as a backdrop. The Madrid Ritz is the setting for many glamorous goings on that involve Ava Gardner, Ernest Hemingway and Loewe.
The first image from the set is above, now press play to see the fun little film they made showing all the ways you can play with your Flamenco...