Loewe: Jonathan Anderson’s greatest hits34 Images
In the hours that Jonathan Anderson announced his departure from Loewe, the word “genius” has appeared online about 40 million times. While it gets bandied around an awful lot these days, it’s easy to see why people are so quick to apply the word to Anderson. Over the 11 and a half years he was creative director of Loewe, the label went through an unprecedented renaissance, transforming from a celebrated but staid heritage house to the 21st-century behemoth we know today. From its viral runway moments, star-studded campaigns, and an overarching focus on quality and craft, we’re looking back at Anderson’s greatest hits at the house – so grab the tissues and scroll down for more.
We absolutely couldn’t talk about Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe without mentioning the star-stacked campaigns the brand has become synonymous with. Anderson had been peppering recognisable faces throughout his campaigns since the start – Charlotte Rampling and Josh O’Connor made their first appearances in SS17 and AW18 respectively – but it wasn’t until the AW22 Juergen Teller campaign when things ramped up a notch. In the images, a smouldering, oyster-wielding O’Connor (pictured above) was joined by Anthony Hopkins, Jessie Buckley, Caroline Polachek, HyunA and Kaia Gerber, which essentially kick-started the mega viral Loewe campaign. From there, the star power of the campaigns went into overdrive, featuring everyone from Taylor Russell, Drew Starkey, Mike Faist, Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, Luca Guadagnino, Greta Lee and Jamie Dornan to Maggie Smith, Lesley Manville, Richard Gadd, Ambika Mod, and Daniel Craig.
During his time as creative director, Anderson acted as a proxy gay historian, using viral runway moments as Trojan Horses to teach the kids their queer culture. For the AW24 men’s show, Anderson presented a selection of frantic, scene-stealing garments which were a collab with American artist Richard Hawkins, whose known for his eccentric portrayals of queer desire; AW21 saw the designer turn to the work of underground New York artist Joe Brainard, selling a book of his work with proceeds going to the fight against AIDs; and last year he teamed up with Jonathan Bailey’s LGBTQ+ charity The Shameless Fund for a very suggestive, milk-splattered baby tee. As well as that, Loewe’s annual sponsorship of the PHotoESPAÑA festival in Madrid has also produced exhibitions on the likes of David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar, Hervé Guibert and the drag artist Divine.
When Loewe isn’t going viral for its genius (and hilarious) social media strategy, it’s going viral accidentally. Remember the stunning tomato that was ‘so Loewe’ that it got memed and Anderson actually turned it into a bag as a result? Or the time Taylor Russell needed help sitting down next to Anna Wintour because she wore a metal coat to the SS24 show? Elsewhere there was the SS23 anthurium breastplate (as worn by Russell on the cover of Dazed); the pixel hoodies from SS23; the balloon boobs of AW22; the men’s sparkly tops from SS24; the viral padded bombers of AW22; plus Polly Pocket dresses, grass-illusion coats and asparagus stick clutch bags. Two immediately recognisable looks from the era also came in the form of Rihanna’s ruby red Super Bowl ensemble – which she wore to reveal her second pregnancy – as well as the most memorable look from Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour: the hand catsuit (you know the one). No matter the season or the occasion, Anderon’s Loewe truly cracked the code of virality.
The house of Loewe wasn’t short of its viral fashion moments, and because of that the footwear has qualified for its own dedicated section. If you’ve been keeping up over the last decade, you’ll know that Anderson clearly has a thing for feet. Across his many collections, the designer has created many different whacky footwear concoctions, from the balloon heels of AW22, SS22’s rosebud heels, sneakers sprouting grass from the SS23 men’s collection, the blown-up Minnie Mouse pumps from the same season’s women’s collection, plus make-up brush heels, broken egg sandals and so much more.
Back in 2017, photographer Jamie Hawkesworth published his first monograph and was described by the New York Times as being “feted as one of the most talented fashion photographers of his generation.” By the time this happened, Hawkesworth had already shot several collections for Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe, starting with the SS15 womenswear lookbook. As per usual, Anderson was ahead of the curve, having already tapped the then-emerging photographer for his eponymous label too, and ultimately, playing a big part in Hawkesworth’s career.
In 2019, shortly after Tyler Mitchell became the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of US Vogue, Anderson asked him to photograph Loewe’s AW19 collection campaign, continuing his streak of working with rising stars in the field. Of course, Anderson has worked with a fair few legends too. Take Steven Meisel’s Loewe AW15 campaign for example, when the legendary photographer provided an unreleased selfie, kissing another man. Perhaps most famous however, are Juergen Teller’s Loewe campaign images – when acting royalty (i.e. Dame Maggie Smith) was photographed against deliberately drab backgrounds. “I curate people as much as I curate objects,” Teller said in an interview from 2016, a statement he’s proven time and time again with the creatives he surrounds himself with – from photographers to muses (see below).
Though Anderson may be known as a boundary-breaking designer, many know that his love of design expands far beyond the fashion world. Many years ago, Anderson became “completely obsessed” with the craft world after coming across a salad bowl by British ceramicist Lucie Rie at auction, and he also curated the art exhibition Disobedient Bodies at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2016. “I think that was an awakening for me,” he told AnOther of Disobedient Bodies in 2018. “I love art and I love making things, I love objects. And when I did this show, it made me understand what I do – that actually, when you put all creative ideas into a melting pot, how good that cross-pollination is.”
Anderson’s love of Rie and curation of various shows led him to create the Loewe Craft Prize in 2016, where working artists compete for a €50,000 prize. Though it may not be as glamorous as celeb cameos and viral runway moments, for the designer the Craft Prize has become a jewel in the crown of his time at Loewe, and even got its own shout out in his leaving message. “One of my proudest achievements is launching the Craft Prize,” he wrote. “We created a platform that genuinely supports and gives visibility to vanishing crafts, young makers, old masters, and new ideas.”
There have been many infamous Met Gala selfies over the years, but never have we had worse FOMO than when Omar Apollo posted the Loewe bus selfie. Alongside Apollo and Anderson were global ambassadors Josh O’Connor and Jamie Dornan, plus director Luca Guadagnino, Alison Oliver, Ambika Mod, Ayo Edebiri, Mike Faist, and Dan Levy. The Met Gala moment felt particularly special because – like starring in a Loewe campaign – being dressed by Anderson’s Loewe was not only a style seal of approval, but a marker of a star’s cultural cache far beyond fashion. The star power gathered together in that one cloutbomb bus selfie really hammered the point home: Anderson’s Loewe gang was one you desperately wanted to be a part of.
Arguably, one of the more underrated elements of Anderon’s world at Loewe was the set design. At times, his fashion show locations were just as breathtaking as the clothes, having collaborated with several artists to make them a reality. A giant, looming anthurium made of fibreglass towered over his SS23 show. There were Anthea Hamilton’s cartoonlike pumpkins that dotted the AW22 runway. Lynda Benglis metal sculptures for SS24. Ribbons created by Joe McShea and Edgar Mos for AW22, and a luminous cotton sculpture created by German artist Franz Erhard Walther for the AW19 men’s show. Sure, his designs were always the star of the show, but Anderson’s Loewe sets certainly didn’t go unnoticed.
Did you know that Anderson originally wanted to be an actor? Aged 18, he moved to the US to study drama at Julliard but soon realised he was far more interested in the costumes – thus, his love of fashion was born. Flash forward two decades and in 2022 Luca Guadagnino asked Anderson to design the costumes for upcoming box office sensation: Challengers, starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Remember Zendaya’s viral ‘I TOLD YA’ t-shirt? It could only have been cooked up by Anderson. Then, immediately after Challengers, Guadagnino enlisted Anderson once again to design the costumes for his latest movie, Queer, starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey. The director and the designer are a match made in heaven, actually… somebody check on Luca.
While Anderson’s tenure at Loewe was marked by a focus on craft and innovation, the designer was no stranger to some canny commercial link-ups too. Over the years Loewe dropped super coverable accessory collabs with the Studio Ghibli films Howl’s Moving Castle Collection, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away, as well as an ongoing sportswear offering with On. But though those areas of the brand may have been more commercially minded, the designer always brought his trademark flair to proceedings.
