Loewe’s Decades of Confusion: A Hilarious Journey Through Pronunciation Mishaps

The team behind Loewe is obviously tired of us pronouncing and spelling the luxury brand’s name incorrectly. For the record: It’s pronounced lo-weh-vay and spelled L-O-E-W-E — with a w, not a v. The brand has put out a series of pronunciation explainers, such as its spring-summer 2023 campaign, and in 2018 it filmed its own runway models attempting to pronounce its name. But apparently that wasn’t enough.

Hopefully the brand’s latest campaign, which features a short film, Decades of Confusion, will do the trick. The film, directed by Ally Pankiw with creative direction by Jonathan Anderson and written by Dan Levy, stars Levy as a spelling-bee judge — a very fed-up spelling-bee judge at a national competition taking place annually from 1971 to the present day. The one speller throughout the years is actress and comedian Aubrey Plaza, who is dressed in archival Loewe looks. At the 1971 spelling bee, a nervous Plaza, wearing curtain bangs and oversize ’70s-style glasses, asks Levy, “Can I get a definition, please? Or a water?” before butchering the name by the second letter. In the 1986 spelling bee, Plaza, with big, fluffy curls, channels a more glamorous and provocative contestant, wearing a vibrant blazer and a colorful Loewe scarf tied around her neck. “This sounds French. Is it French?” Plaza says before distractingly asking Levy, “Are you hitting on me?” Levy’s response: “No, I’m not — I’m gay as a maypole.” Does Plaza ever spell the name right? Well. By the ’90s spelling bee, she’s channeling a “Texan socialite” and wearing a Loewe Amazona bag. “I think my handbag is Loewe,” she says before still spelling it wrong yet again. And by the present day, she’s clad in a car-shaped dress from the fall-winter ’22 runway, the spring-summer ’23 balloon shoes, a green Flamenco bag and sunglasses along with a short banged bob. “Are you kidding me? There’s a w in there? Just wait until Johnny hears about this,” she says, alluding to creative director Jonathan Anderson. Finally, after being asked to leave and never spelling it right, Plaza beeps herself off-stage in the car dress.

Alas, we never get to learn what prize Plaza is spelling for. Maybe a Loewe Flamenco bag? A Puzzle bag? Or just finally knowing she’s not fumbling the brand’s name?

Words: @annaamaso