Jonathan Anderson departs Loewe after 11 years

Jonathan Anderson is stepping down from his role as creative director of Spanish luxury house Loewe, it has been confirmed this morning. The announcement comes after fervent speculation about the Northern Irish designer’s next move, and the absence of Loewe runway shows on both the men’s and women’s Paris Fashion Week schedules this season.

‘While reflecting on the last 11 years, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by people with the imagination, the skills, the tenacity and the resourcefulness to find a way to say “yes” to all my wildly ambitious ideas,’ Anderson said in a statement. ‘While my chapter draws to a close, Loewe’s story will continue for many years to come, and I will look on with pride, watching it continue to grow, the amazing Spanish brand I once called home.’

An A/W 2025 collection, shown in an intimate presentation earlier this month in Paris, will be his last.

Jonathan Anderson is leaving Loewe

Anderson, who rose to renown with his eponymous London-based label JW Anderson, joined Loewe in 2013. Then a relatively sleepy house in the LVMH roster, Anderson would begin its transformation into a global player by reimagining its visual identity alongside French creative studio M/M Paris. A memorable debut campaign featured his revived Loewe logo – written in a font inspired by German-born typographer Berthold Wolpe – alongside a mix of contemporary and archival imagery by Steven Meisel from a 1997 Vogue Italia shoot.

Anderson’s early collections for the house were rooted in the idea of craft and ease: his debut collection featured turned-up fisherman’s trousers, sinuous striped knitwear, python espadrilles and voluminous poplin shirts, while models grasped Loewe-branded blankets in their hands. ‘I like the idea that people today are so culturally aware that everything that goes into their homes matters as much as each piece of clothing,’ he told Wallpaper* at the time, hinting towards the universe he would build at Loewe, which would eventually include fragrance, home scents, decorative objects, and a series of Salone del Mobile projects which reimagined chairs, lamps and baskets. He would also create a summer diffusion line, Loewe Paula’s Ibiza, inspired by the legendary bohemian boutique on the Balearic island.

The introduction of the Puzzle bag in his S/S 2015 collection would provide his first commercial hit. A top-handle style constructed from jigsaw puzzle-like slices of leather, its proportions are designed to adapt to the wearer’s body. ‘I set out to find a new way of building a bag, fundamentally questioning its structure… it was about deconstructing a conventional bag to create a flat object with a tridimensional function,’ he said at the time. It has since been reimagined in various sizes, including the ubiquitous Puzzle tote, introduced for A/W 2023. Other hits have included reworked versions of the house’s Flamenco bag, which began life in the 1970s, and the crossbody Gate bag.

Recent seasons have seen Anderson adopt a more avant-garde approach with collections featuring surreal elements – from balloon-shaped heels to enormous perspex flowers and hammered-metal angel wings – or garments reduced to their absolute essence. ‘I wanted something erotic, psychedelic, touching on Surrealism,’ he said of his S/S 2022 show, which marked something of a turning point for the designer, seeing models rise from beneath the runway making the audience assess the look from the head down. ‘Everything appears normal, but it’s not really. I didn’t want to create a collection that was completely grounded in reality’.

More recently, he has talked about the idea of reduction, with his S/S 2025 menswear collection featuring sharply defined tailoring with elongated feather headpieces, which gave the effect of slicing the look in half. ‘It’s about knowing when to pull back, or when to push it,’ he told Wallpaper* after the show. ‘This is my own interpretation of precision.’

That same collection was shown amid a gallery-like collection of works by Paul Thek, Carlo Scarpa, Peter Hujar and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, selected by Anderson for their ‘singular’ vision. Such a multi-disciplinary approach has defined his tenure at Loewe, including numerous artist collaborations – among them Lynda Benglis, Richard Hawkins and Anthea Hamilton – and the establishment of the yearly Loewe Craft Prize, which supports ‘uniquely talented artisans whose artistic vision and will to innovate set new standards for the future of craft’.

Meanwhile figures from film, like Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Ayo Edebiri and Richard Gadd, have appeared in the house’s campaigns (during his tenure, he would also work with Luca Guadagnino on the costumes for Challengers and Queer under his own name). Loewe would also sponsor the 2024 Costume Institute exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, dressing a slew of celebrities for the accompanying Met Gala, including Taylor Russell, Ariana Grande, and Jamie Dornan. Also in 2024, Loewe would host the ‘Loewe Crafted World’ in Shanghai, exploring and celebrating craft past and present in all its forms.

‘I have had the pleasure of working with some of the great artistic directors of recent times, and I consider Jonathan Anderson to be amongst the very best. What he has contributed to Loewe goes beyond creativity. He has built a rich and eclectic world with strong foundations in craft which will enable the House to thrive long after his departure,’ says Pascale Lepoivre, Loewe’s CEO.

loewe.com