LOEWE

What do you picture when you think of LOEWE?

Jonathan Anderson’s idea lab? A fashion house more interested in art than algorithms?

 

ⓒLOEWE

 

They’ve given us plenty to work with: campaigns starring curators and cult actors, their own international craft prize, costume design credits with Luca Guadagnino. Not to mention some of the sharpest, strangest silhouettes on the runway. LOEWE isn’t the type of brand you summarize neatly. But if you had to: playful, deeply cultured, quietly funny, sometimes weird, never stuck in place.

How old would you guess this shape-shifting brand is?

 

ⓒLOEWE

 

You guessed it, LOEWE is 179 years old. The version of it we know is just one chapter in a much longer book. It started as a leather workshop in Madrid, 1864. In 1876, German-born Enrique Loewe joined the business, put his name on it, and turned it into a full-fledged brand. By the early 1900s, it was supplying the Spanish royal family, and even Hemingway was a fan.

 

1950's ⓒLOEWE

 

For most of its life, LOEWE was known as Spain’s answer to Hermès. High-end leather goods, heritage craftsmanship, elegant and conservative. But when LVMH acquired the brand in 1996, the goal shifted: go global, stay relevant. That transition wasn’t smooth.

The house cycled through a handful of creative directors, and none of them made much of a mark. They tried to push the image forward, but without a strong identity behind the effort, it didn’t stick. Most of those names are long forgotten now.

 

1991 Loewe Campaign Ad ⓒpinterest

Loewe SS11 ⓒhero-magazine.com

  

Jonathan Anderson Enters the Chat

ⓒLOEWE

  

Then came the version of LOEWE we know now. As soon as Jonathan Anderson stepped in, he made one thing clear: this wasn’t going to be a nostalgia act. The brand shed its image as a royal leather institution and reemerged as a house grounded in art. He brought in complex references pulled from contemporary works, gender-fluid silhouettes, and a sharp focus on craftsmanship and material. He blended fashion with art, the past with the present, and poured it all onto the foundation of a 180-year legacy. The transformation worked.

 

SS25 Menswear, FW24 Ready-to-Wear ⓒLOEWE

FW24 Menswear ⓒLOEWE

SS23 Menswear ⓒLOEWE

 

He understood that high fashion can start to feel heavy when it forgets how to have fun. His solution was to bring subculture into high fashion. In a market where people line up to spend thousands on a bag, he stripped away some of the heaviness and added a little wit. The Studio Ghibli collaboration was the clearest example of that shift.

 

  

Moves like that paid off. In both 2023 and 2024, LOEWE topped the charts as the world’s hottest brand, beating out Prada and Miu Miu in the process. There’s a reason people say you can tell who’s having a moment just by looking at a LOEWE campaign. The most in-demand brand brings in the most in-demand names.

 

LOEWE campaign still featuring world-renown curator Hans Ulrich Obrist

Greta Lee, lead actress of Past Lives, captured mid-breakthrough and Model Jū, Xiǎowén ⓒ@LOEWE

 

Goodbye, Hello

Jonathan Anderson’s chapter, one that once felt like it might never end, has officially closed. News of his departure broke in March 2025, and a month later his successors were announced: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the duo behind Proenza Schouler. Back in January, they had already stepped down from their own label. All signs point to a full commitment to LOEWE.

 

ⓒsmagazineofficial

   

Considered classic New York talent, the duo built their name from the ground up. They began with their Parsons thesis collection and went on to win five CFDA awards. With little more than vision and persistence, they built Proenza Schouler into a defining brand of the 2000s. The PS1 satchel was everywhere. 

What Proenza Schouler has always done well is balance practicality with precision. Their debut at LOEWE is set for September with the Spring/Summer 2026 collection, and if Anderson’s LOEWE was defined by unlikely collisions, theirs might lean more toward cohesion. Asymmetric tailoring, sheer layering, and bold color-blocking have long been part of their signature. There’s reason to think they’ll bring a more grounded kind of luxury to LOEWE, something that speaks to the everyday without losing edge. Let’s look at the work.

 

Pamela Anderson, face of the SS24 campaign ⓒ@proenzaschouler

SS24

FW23 ⓒ@proenzaschouler

Pre-Fall 23, Pre-Fall 20 ⓒvogue 

   

From color to silhouette, the difference from Anderson’s LOEWE is already clear. But there’s one major thing they still have in common. Both Anderson and the Proenza Schouler duo have a deep relationship with art, and they draw from it constantly.

  

Brice Marden

Donald Judd, Rachel Whiterea ©@proenzaschouler

Crafted World, Shanghai, 2024. ©LOEWE

   

The fire is hot, and the ingredients couldn’t be better. LOEWE has the audience, the momentum, and a story worth building on. Now it’s just a matter of what these two chefs decide to cook.