More to Loewe's bags than leather

SPANISH luxury-fashion house Loewe showed Bangkok shoppers last week how important it regards craftsmanship, flying one of its foremost artisans to Thailand to demonstrate the art of making Puzzle, Hammock and Elephant bags.
Ordonez Castilla Rasquei had a rapt audience at the Loewe boutique in the Emporium as she explained how she keeps creative director Jonathan Anderson pleased back in Madrid.
Venerable heritage meets modern sensibilities in their joint creations.
The cube-shaped Puzzle bag is one of Anderson’s most innovative products and has been a Loewe favourite since its debut at the 2014 Paris Fashion Week.
Made with black calfskin that’s joined in geometric “puzzle pieces”, it’s remarkably soft and foldable. Every cut, seam and pleat has to be executed with precision in a complicated construction process that tests the makers’ skills. 
The bag is composed of 41 different pieces of leather, nine pieces of cloth, 45 cloth “armours” and assorted metal accents including the zippers. 

With assembly of each bag requiring 524 separate actions – and all the sewing is done by hand – the whole process takes nearly nine hours. 
First a “prototype” is prepared, marked with the puzzle pieces and patterns sketched in place for reference. All the pieces have to be cut and prepared before assembly, with immense care going into the cutting alone. Then every piece of leather is split, glued and embossed with the firm’s monogram.
Loewe says the Puzzle “embodies novel ideas about form, construction and materiality, incredible softness and maximum utility”. It can be worn five different ways – as a shoulder bag, clutch, folded until flat and more. 
“I set out to find a new way of building a bag, fundamentally questioning its structure,” says Anderson. “It was about deconstructing a conventional bag to create a flat object with a tri-dimensional function.”
In the latest collection, the bag is enhanced by a three-colour palette and features new materials, such as tartan, lending a more chic look.
The Hammock bag, introduced for spring-summer 2016, was inspired by the charmingly simple construction of everyone’s favourite outdoor summer lounging place. The assembly process is similar to that of the Puzzle, though the tools of leather masters of the past come into play more. 

One step is called lujado, referring to painting the edges of the bag by hand. It’s a tricky, repetitive, time-consuming affair involving six stages. Once painted, the edge has lime applied, is heated and finally coated with alcohol for the finish. 
Artisans toil over the sewing and other details, the hardware, the inside look and the removable strap, all of which play roles in the bag’s functionality as well as its high quality. 
Lowe has a whole line of leather animal bags – the Elephant, Panda, Cow and Frog. With a few clever stitches, the artisan transforms a piece of leftover leather into a pink elephant. 
Anderson was scrutinising equally fun and multifunctional coin purses and key chains and came up with the idea of a calf-leather Panda bag.