When Loewe releases bags like the new Luna and Hammock Nugget, part of a highly innovative spring/summer 2022 collection recently unveiled by the brand’s celebrated creative director Jonathan Anderson , it’s drawing on a history of fine leather working that goes all the way back to 1846. That was when one of the world’s oldest luxury houses was founded by a consortium of Spanish leather craftsmen led by one Enrique Loewe. By 1905, the company had become an official supplier to the Spanish crown, and as the 20th century progressed, Loewe increasingly became the choice of celebrities, from Marlene Dietrich to Ava Gardner to Sophia Loren. As a leather expert of unmatched heritage, bags have always been right at the centre of Loewe’s line-up of products. But they’ve moved to another level since 2013, when its creative vision started to be driven by Anderson, who has since introduced a number of lines that became immediate classics, such as the saddle-shaped Gate and the bulging, unconventionally proportioned Puzzle. Paris Fashion Week 2022: Loewe delighted with surreal, unconventional looks The designer again brings a characteristically innovative touch to this spring/summer collection, which is inspired by the work of 16th century Florentine mannerist painter Jacopo Pontormo. A trailblazer in numerous respects, Pontormo pioneered a style of painting that moved on from the emphasis on balance, proportion and harmony that had previously dominated Renaissance aesthetics, towards experimentation with form and perspective, deliberately privileging the asymmetrical, the unbalanced and the artificial, foregrounding the strange and exaggerated, and presenting figures in rich, ambiguous compositions in which they seem to flow into each other. In Anderson’s new collection, this translates into a twisted, contorted look that similarly plays with proportion and symmetry. It’s a collection that constantly delights with the unexpected: otherwise figure-hugging dresses are highlighted by unexpected, discombobulating protrusions; heels resemble candy canes and nail polish bottles; metal plates explode incongruously across the front of dresses and boats; and otherworldly capes create unreal silhouettes. STYLE Edit: Project power with Loewe’s classy and confident Amazona The same sense of visual daring informs the bags in the collection. The Luna bag, for example, is a completely new addition to Loewe’s line-up and presents a smile-shaped silhouette. A kind of hobo bag with a long strap, allowing it to also be worn over the shoulder, it is available in smooth leather and in Anagram jacquard, a finish the brand has long favoured. Another of the bags in the collection, the Hammock Nugget, is the latest iteration of the much-loved Hammock bag, a supremely functional bag known for its versatility: it can be carried in the hand, worn as a shoulder bag or worn across the body, and it comes with collapsible soft sides that make it adjustable in proportions, too. As the name suggests, those proportions have been slimmed down for the Hammock Nugget, which comes in nappa calfskin; but it still offers the same range of carrying options, featuring a detachable and adjustable shoulder strap and two top handles that can be intertwined when you prefer to carry it elegantly by hand. Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .