Loewe SS20 — A Show of Hands by Steven Meisel
A Show of Hands is a standalone photographic series by Steven Meisel, developed in parallel with the SS20 campaigns. Accompanying images of a tattooed fist grasping a clump of earth and manicured hands manipulating synthetic slime both improvised on a symbol of popular protest. This is fashion united rather than shooting full figures or faces Meisel isolates the hand as the sole visual subject stripping away identity styling and context to create something simultaneously documentary and fine art.
The Visual Strategy: The Hand as Political Symbol
The conceptual idea behind it is the raised fist one of the most universal symbols of resistance, solidarity and collective action. But Meisel doesn’t reproduce the symbol literally instead he lays it and showcase it across a range of scenarios textures and gestures.
- The tattooed fist grasping earth – raw, organic, grounded. It evokes labour and protest and connection to land. The grey neutral background isolates it almost like a treasure or evidence.
- Hands with slime – at first glance a complete aesthetic polished long nails and a saturated green, the unique texture of internet viral slime trend. The green slime image reflects a calming influence for our anxiety and riddled brains while reflecting and juxtaposition of the internet’s obsession with slime. Loewe yet the gesture hands pulling apart and stretching and also resisting still echoes the language of protest. Luxury and young adult internet culture are deliberately collapsed together.
Tone of Voice
The series has a clinical but significant quality. The tight cropping and neutral backgrounds give it the feel of forensic photography the cold and objective on the surface. But the subjects protest symbols, earthy textures, skin and earth inject raw human energy beneath that cool exterior. The tension between those two registers controls vs political and emotional urgency this is where the series really shows its true meaning. In on of the lecture in week 2 we’ve talked about art directions being used as political symbols in 2000s-Present Art.
Brand Personality and Language
The series reinforces Loewe’s overarching identity under Anderson (owner) a brand that is genuinely intellectually curious and also not just aesthetically adventurous. By embedding protest imagery and internet subculture into campaign work presented with the same seriousness as portraiture or product photography.
- Politically and culturally aware.
- Comfortable with contradiction example calm and urgent.
- Although this is a advertisement campaign Meisel’s series functions more like a gallery project than a campaign.
- Trusting of its audience to do interpretive work rather than spoon feeding the meaning.
Audience Reach
This campaign is aimed more towards Fashion insiders who have the time and take a lot of pride into fashion however, the overall feedback from this campaign is positive for them this campaign rewards close reading and feels like an invitation into a shared world. We could argue that this campaign could also reach your everyday media consumer due to the slime culture was at its peak at the time deeply embedded in gen z online experience.
The first possible audience group it may exclude is the older generation as the campaign’s vocabulary slime, protest fists, unglamorous textures may read as strange or even off putting to a buyer who associates luxury with elegance restraint and heritage. ‘A Show of Hands’ is almost entirely for people already inside the Loewe world. Someone encountering the brand through this image has no way to understand what Loewe makes.
A Show of Hands speaks to fashion insiders art world audiences and creative professionals, but risks losing the mainstream luxury consumer and anyone new to the brand who has no framework to decode it. To broaden its reach the strongest moves would be culturally optimise the series for example using the hands that actually make the product. As a creative director my analysis is that the campaign gestures toward big ideas without fully committing to the most powerful tension available the hand as political symbol alongside the hand as maker of beautiful things this composition pushed further would have made the work more complete and more specifically Loewe.
Reference
Loewe – Designer Bags (2026) https://www.loewe.com/eur/en/home [Accessed 28/02/25]
Loewe – Loewe Campaigns (2026) https://www.loewe.com/eur/en/loewecampaigns_about [Accessed 28/02/25]
Steven Meisel – Steven Meisel Wikipedia(2026) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Meisel [Accessed 28/02/25]
Bracken – 11 elements of a successful advertising campaign (2026) https://www.thebrackengroup.com/blog/11-elements-of-a-successful-advertising-campaign [Accessed 28/02/25]
Noramble – How to Incorporate Personality in Your Brand Design (2026) https://noramble.co.uk/blog/how-to-incorporate-personality-in-your-brand-design[Accessed 28/02/25]
Phd – Creating Effective Visual Marketing Campaign (2023) https://phddesign.co.uk/creating-effective-visual-campaigns/ [Accessed 28/02/25]
Adobe – 18 best marketing campaigns to inspire you (20230 https://business.adobe.com/uk/blog/basics/marketing-campaign-examples [Accessed 28/02/25]
Officemagazine – LOEWE S/S ’20 (2019) https://officemagazine.net/loewe-ss-20 [Accessed 28/02/25]
Instagram – “A SHOW OF HANDS” by STEVEN MEISEL, 2019. our LOEWE #ss20 campaign https://www.instagram.com/p/B9EGy8Hp3pF/?img_index=2 [Accessed 28/02/25]
Image Reference
Loewe – Loewe Campaigns (Summer spring 2020) (2026) https://www.loewe.com/eur/en/loewecampaigns_about [Accessed 28/02/25]