Loewe: For the Love of Craft and Surrealism
If it’s Ghesquière’s intellectual approach and obsession with form that captivates you, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe is your next destination. While Ghesquière’s work often feels like a transmission from the future, Anderson’s is grounded in a deep, almost
reverent respect for craft, which he then twists into something surreal and thought-provoking. Think of it as the artisanal side of the same brain. Where Ghesquière might use a technical fabric to create a sculptural sleeve, Anderson will achieve a similar effect by manipulating leather or knitwear into an impossible shape. His collections for the Spanish house are a playground of proportion and texture. You'll find pixelated hoodies, jackets with cartoonishly padded shoulders, and dresses that seem to float with an internal logic. It’s fashion for those who appreciate not just the look of a garment, but the sheer cleverness and artistry behind its construction. The connection to Ghesquière lies in this shared commitment to making you look twice and question what a piece of clothing can be.
Courrèges: For Sharp, Space-Age Modernity
Perhaps you're drawn to Ghesquière’s unapologetic futurism, a thread that has run through his work since his legendary tenure at Balenciaga. If that’s the case, look no further than Courrèges, currently under the direction of Nicolas Di Felice. Funnily enough, Di Felice is an alum of Ghesquière's studio, having worked with him at both Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton. At Courrèges, he has masterfully revived the house's 1960s Space Age DNA for a new generation. The look is sharp, clean, and graphic. You'll find A-line miniskirts in high-tech vinyl, cropped jackets with architectural precision, and a stark color palette that feels both retro and futuristic. Di Felice shares Ghesquière’s talent for creating a distinct, uniform-like vocabulary—a set of codes that are instantly recognizable. While Ghesquière’s futurism often involves a collage of different eras, Di Felice’s is more singular and direct, offering a purer distillation of sci-fi chic that feels incredibly modern and wearable.
Sacai: For the Art of the Hybrid
One of Ghesquière's most influential signatures is his method of “hybridization”—the art of splicing two seemingly disparate garments into one cohesive whole. He might merge a romantic frock coat with a sporty bomber or blend tailoring with athletic wear. If this clever deconstruction-reconstruction appeals to you, then Chitose Abe of Sacai is essential viewing. Abe is the undisputed master of the hybrid. Her entire design philosophy is built on this concept. Under her hand, a trench coat is seamlessly fused with a denim jacket, or a classic cardigan is spliced with the nylon shell of a flight jacket. The results are complex, surprising, and always impeccably executed. Like Ghesquière, Abe creates clothes that are layered with detail and demand a closer look. They are uniforms for a complex world, garments that feel familiar and utterly new at the same time. This is less about a shared aesthetic and more about a shared methodology—a belief that innovation comes from brilliantly remixing the known.
Rick Owens: For Architectural Drama
If you are drawn to the powerful, sculptural, and almost monumental quality of Ghesquière’s silhouettes, then Rick Owens offers that same drama, albeit through a much darker, more brutalist lens. While Ghesquière’s work is often described as futuristic, Owens’s feels almost primal or otherworldly. His collections feature garments that drape, wrap, and jut out from the body in ways that challenge conventional notions of shape and form. He is an architect of clothing, creating monolithic shoulders, cascading swathes of fabric, and a silhouette that is both protective and imposing. The connection to Ghesquière is in the uncompromising commitment to a strong, architectural vision. Both designers create pieces that have a powerful physical presence and transform the wearer. If Ghesquière designs for the sophisticated time traveler, Owens designs for the high priestess of a concrete metropolis. It’s a different mood, but the same dedication to bold, structural integrity is there.
