What was Loewe Like Before Jonathan Anderson?

Loewe Amazona 23.

But really, it’s we ourselves that change. Perhaps you can’t recognize that person from a decade and a half ago who had envisioned future you with a bag that you don’t even want anymore. Or perhaps you can’t recognize the person you’d been before you were ushered into a private room with champagne and a smile by a manager who knows your name – and the endless stretches of wishing, wanting, and worshipping that the long waits once entailed.

Or perhaps you can’t recognize the version of yourself from a year, a week, or even a day ago, before you met someone who changed the course of your life.

elephant basket small shopper bag loewe bag natural tan.

But it’s nonetheless indelible, inevitable, and indisputable. And in fashion – where the average lifespan of an article of clothing in the Western wardrobe is five weeks, and the tenure of the average designer three years – change is swift, be it in replacing last week’s new shirt with this week’s new(er) shirt, or playing creative director musical chairs between heritage houses.

Eleven years, therefore, is a rather substantial period, even by average human standards, which renders it an almost superhuman achievement within the confines of fashion. And that is precisely how long Jonathan Anderson managed to stay at Loewe until slit shopper bag loewe bag natural.

So, I couldn’t help but wonder, would we recognize Loewe today as it was eleven years ago, before Anderson had walked its hallowed halls?

The Hallowed Halls of a Heritage House

In 2014, a hot new designer was at the helm of Loewe.

By then, he was already running a successful namesake label, had had a short design stint at Versus Versace (having, puzzle shoulder bag loewe bag rouge, been “wearing a promotional Versus Jeans t-shirt, cycling shorts and jelly shoes, and you can imagine how that goes down in Northern Ireland!”) and spearheaded two instant sellout commercial collabs with Topshop and Uniqlo respectively.

And at Loewe, he started by introducing a new logo.

But it wasn’t one of those insipid loewe pink embroidered sweatshirt that graced the maison’s new monogram. Instead, he brought back the Loewe logo as he saw it in its archives: in a Pegasus typeface by Berthold Wolpe from the ’20s, debossed onto the inside of a little box “made for putting kids’ teeth in.” And with it came a more streamlined version of the brand’s anagram monogram of four interconnected L’s, introduced in 1970 by artist Vicente Vela.

Naturally, like any new logo, the uproar about it in Spain – Loewe’s country of origin – was in Anderson’s words, “a nightmare. And now they’re fine with it. Time always helps. Hopefully by tomorrow morning they’ll finally forgive me.”

After all, here is a label that’s now celebrating its 179^th year of existence, the oldest in LVMH’s stable. It was founded in Madrid by a commune of leather craftsmen and, as of 1905, “Supplier to the Royal Court” of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. His wife, Queen Victoria Eugenie, was a frequent fixture at the house’s store on Príncipe de Madrid street, as were the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Sophia Loren, Rita Hayworth, and Marlene Dietrich.

Today, while it may not quite be serving Spanish royalty, it still continues to pander to pop-culture royalty like Rihanna, Zendaya, Chloë Sevigny, Luca Guadagnino, Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and the late Dame Maggie Smith.

Quite the evolution, isn’t it?

Design Deals & Designer Dilemmas

But Loewe, as the label had come to be labeled after its acquisition by German artisan Enrique Loewe Roessberg in 1872, hadn’t always been about those viral balloon-breasted dresses or loafers Puzzle bags or Polly Pocket heels.

In fact, it was only after the LVMH-led acquisition in 1996 that Loewe began its ascent to global prominence. With it came the brand’s remarkable roster of creative directors, with Narciso Rodriguez being appointed its first.

Bringing forth a sleek ’90s sensibility to both RTW and accessories, Rodriguez aimed to increase visibility with strategic storefronts across the world.

In 2001, Belgian-born Spaniard José Enrique Oña Selfa subsequently took over the reins from Rodriguez and redirected focus to Loewe’s leather craftsmanship, bringing updated reinterpretations of the Flamenco. Following José Enrique’s departure in 2007, British creative Stuart Vevers—fresh out of a gig revitalizing Mulberry and an Accessory Designer of the Year win at the 2006 Fashion Awards- was roped in to lead Loewe to its glory.

But Vevers’ attempts to connect with a newer, younger audience – and thus, breathe new life into its staid stables – were perhaps a little too outré for customer tastes. Case in point, Vevers’ Oro Collection for Spring 2012 – featuring a group of youthful, up-and-coming Spanish talents, faced censure for its apparent nepo-baby insinuations (consider that unemployment in Spain was also at an all-time high) and its ageist slogans like “it’s a drag to get older” – ironically when the majority of Loewe-lovers were older!

As a result, it was out with the old (see what I did there?) and in with the new; Vevers had left by June 2013, and Anderson stepped into his shoes come 2014.

borsa loewe amazona modello grande in pelle bordeaux | When Life Gives You Tomatoes…

Make a clutch out of it, of course! As Jonathan Anderson revealed on his Instagram, the “Loewe meme to reality,” inspired by the Twitter discourse around “This tomato is so Loewe I can’t explain it.”

In fact, Loewe as we know it now – as one of the hottest brands on the Lyst Index with north of 10 billion views on TikTok – can be accredited, almost in its entirety, to Anderson’s work. Because at a time when creatives enter and exit the conglomerates at breakneck speeds – when a debut is expected to not be just good, but absolutely radical – Anderson’s evolution of Loewe was far from rushed or forced. Perhaps because, at the end of the day, it was all deeply rooted within the brand’s design DNA.

Take the Amazona bag, formally introduced following the fall of Franco’s fascist dictatorship in Spain in 1975 as an artful artifice for the growing female workforce in male-dominated workplaces, and revived, first by Vevers, then by Anderson in Loewe’s fall 2021 show that also celebrated its 175th anniversary.

eye loewe nature collection loewe belt black, a softer silhouette riffing off the skirts of a Flamenco dancer, was also originally launched in the ’70s, reprised by Vevers in 2010, and subsequently reimagined and relaunched by Anderson in 2021.

Or consider Anderson’s inspirations from Spanish architect Javier Carvajal’s edgy Loewe store designs in the fifties and sixties, or his advocacy of feminist sculptor Lynda Benglis over Andy Warhol stating, “Of course, I could tell you about Andy Warhol, but everyone knows about Andy Warhol.”

And then we mustn’t forget that green Loewe Puzzle flying on a witch’s broom to the tune of Wicked’s Defying Gravity, or Rihanna’s ruby-red pregnancy Super Bowl fit, or his cheeky Challengers Loewe Anagram Sweatshirt in Gray Vogue’s Laia Garcia-Furtado writes, “If Anderson could figure out a way to put something on the body (or against it, or through it, or right next to it, or, or, or…) then it was fair game for a strut down the runway.”

Loewe Orange & Tortoiseshell Paula's Ibiza Dive In declared at the eve of his departure, “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.”

But there’s no denying that Loewe has changed – indelibly, inevitably, and indisputably – under his wing. Until the Proenza brothers work their prowess, all we can do is accidentally keep spilling water on our phones, so they go shopping on the Loewe website all by themselves.