‘Nobody thought it was going to work’: Jonathan Anderson on a decade leading Loewe

Before Anderson’s arrival, Loewe had long been known for its Spanish heritage – the maison had been an official purveyor to the Royal Household of Spain – and its Amazona and Flamenco bags, but lacked a cohesive visual identity. Outside Spain, it could be found in a few other countries in Europe and Asia – notably Japan – but the label had little to no presence in key markets such as the US or China. It was a sleeping beauty waiting to be awakened, and Anderson was the one to bring it back to life and give it a much needed dose of energy.

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“I’ll never forget the first show I did. It was the first big job that I had, at the Unesco [headquarters in Paris], and it was very interesting to do this thing that I never dreamed I’d be able to do for this giant group. And looking at it now, I stand by that collection,” Anderson tells Style during a recent visit to Shanghai. “It was an exciting moment. When I took over Loewe nobody thought it was going to work and I remember that moment quite fondly.”

Loewe autumn/winter 2024 collection, shown in Paris in March

The brand was incredibly tiny when I joined and a lot of people probably thought that this was never going to work … I feel I’ve done my job and it was what Loewe needed

The 39-year-old designer is in China’s fashion hub for the unveiling of “Crafted World”, an exhibition charting the history of Loewe, and celebrating his remarkable 10-year run at the house. After closing in Shanghai in early May, the show will make stops around the world. Given the setting, he was in a nostalgic mood and a bit emotional at the prospect of presenting the world his work for a brand that is now so closely associated with his own creative prowess, and called working on the exhibition, conceived in collaboration with Dutch architecture firm OMA, “cathartic”.

“When you’re at a brand for 10 years and the brand has been around since 1846, it’s very easy to forget what you were doing, and this is a very important chance to understand all the things that I had picked up at the very beginning and all the things that had influenced me at the brand,” says Anderson. “Are they still relevant today?”

Jonathan Anderson at the “Crafted World” show in Shanghai, interviewed by Style in March 2024. Photo: Yu Cong

Looking at Anderson’s body of work for Loewe in a museum-like setting feels quite appropriate. Not long after taking over, Anderson redefined Loewe as a “cultural brand”, harking back to the company’s early days as a cooperative of artisans that prized craftsmanship and the making of beautiful objects (the name came later, after German craftsman Enrique Loewe joined the fold in 1876). Anderson’s love for crafts and “underserved” disciplines such as weaving and pottery has always been a key influence on his work. Unlike designers chasing after the hot artist of the moment for trend-driven collaborations, Anderson is very thoughtful about the creatives he works with.

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“I always discover things and I want to share them, so if I discover the painter Albert York, I want people to know about him. Of course, I could tell you about Andy Warhol but everyone knows about Andy Warhol [but], there are people who are just as great as Andy – like Lynda Benglis, one of the most important feminist sculptors in the world who fundamentally changed American sculpture in the 70s,” says Anderson.

Loewe’s “Crafted World” exhibition, which will be on view in Shanghai until early May and eventually make stops around the world

“Sometimes I feel that when brands do already big names you’re re-commercialising the commercial, so end up telling a story that everybody knows. There’s nothing more exciting than telling the unfamiliar. It’s nice to get people to engage in something they don’t know; my job is to be curious about something I don’t know, every day.”

Rather than pandering to an elite group of art aficionados, Anderson’s culture-driven approach welcomes in mass appreciation, and this ability to combine cultural cachet with commercial savvy has made him one of the most influential designers of the 21st century. Just look at how far Loewe has come since he took over 10 years ago, when the brand was almost a nonentity when compared to its sister LVMH labels such as Dior, Fendi or even Givenchy. Loewe is now one of the best performing brands at LVMH and often ranks as one of the top three brands on the Lyst Index, a quarterly ranking of fashion’s hottest brands and products. From a hit collaboration with trainer label On to red-carpet endorsements from A-list celebrities such as Rihanna and Zendaya, the brand has been on a roll in recent years.

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Loewe ambassador Zendaya wearing the brand at the Australian premiere of the film Challengers in Sydney in March. Photo: EPA-EFE

“I always knew that Loewe was going to work but never believed that it was going to transcend this far, and to be here and see a billboard and a giant exhibition and everything together. It’s quite a surreal thing,” says Anderson. “The brand was incredibly tiny when I joined and a lot of people probably thought that this was never going to work and now coming here I feel I’ve done my job and it was what Loewe needed.”

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Now a household name in fashion circles, Anderson is aware of the impact he’s had on Loewe but at the same time, he is adamant that the brand is bigger than any one designer and he sees that achievement as a barometer of his success.

“This brand will survive without me because it has survived without me since it was born in 1846 – it’s just a new chapter now. What’s important is that whatever people’s knowledge of the brand is in today’s world, it has to have a fundamental DNA,” says Anderson. “A lot of people don’t know that I do it. They know it as a brand and buy this bag because it has this name on it – I’ve built a world around it to sell that, so I’m just a custodian to the whole thing. When I started the job I’ve always believed that if you’re a very good designer you’re able to create something that is able to surpass yourself.”

Loewe autumn/winter 2024 collection, shown in Paris in March

Anderson’s modest view of his accomplishments at Loewe may come across as a “humblebrag”, but it’s actually an example of his laserlike focus on brand building. The designer came of age at a pivotal time in the industry when luxury groups asserted their power and designers became guns for hire who had to deliver results for their parent companies. While Anderson prizes creativity and innovation above all else and does not shy away from indulging in flights of fancy at his always talked-about runway shows, he is very pragmatic and knows that he has a job to do and expectations to meet.

“The pandemic was a moment when we realised that we could lose everything and at the same time we could gain everything,” he says. “For me it was a wake-up call because I had been at the brand for seven or eight years and when the pandemic happened I didn’t know where I was going, and at that moment we started doing the shows in boxes. I felt like, let’s slow everything down and if we’re going to survive through this we have to do things differently. It was a turning point for me and for the brand because I think everyone realised that if we were to be a creative entity we had to be the best to make it work; it was [empowering].”

The pandemic also played a key role in the genesis of “Crafted World”. Anderson was in Shanghai in December 2019, just before the world came to a halt, and was already thinking about doing something in China. “That was the end of an old world and the beginning of a new world, so I wanted to go back and say, if we’re going to do this exhibition, let’s do it far away so we have some distance from it and at the same time we can create something new,” he says.

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“We do so much in Europe and it’s a bit annoying that we don’t do as much outside; I don’t do this just for Europeans. China is a new market for us and, because what I built is not just straightforward, I want people to understand why Loewe is an amazing brand – when people go into this world and they leave, they hopefully realise they’re not just buying something with the name Loewe but because of this entire universe.”

Giant Castle bag from 2023’s Howl’s Moving Castle Collection, displayed at “Crafted World” in Shanghai

Far from jaded, Anderson still talks about Loewe as if he’s just discovering the storied maison that he single-handedly turned into a global powerhouse. There’s no question that he has left an indelible mark on the brand and on what Loewe means to luxury consumers in Asia and beyond. He is very matter of fact about the reality that one day his role as “custodian” will come to an end but is also confident that the foundations he has built are strong enough to propel the success of Loewe as it enters its next chapter.

“I want people to go into a store and see something they’ve never seen before. It could be a sculpture, a ceramic, it has to be something that is not just about the brand, so I hope that when people come to this exhibition they will see one object they’ve never seen before, even if it’s just one, and if it inspires you, great,” says Anderson. “If someone young sees something that inspires them then Loewe and the entire team have done an amazing job.”