Jonathan Anderson (Magherafelt, Northern Ireland, 39 years old), creative director of Loewe, has been considered the designer of the moment for a decade. For experts, he is the “darling” of the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, but he does not behave like one. He's wearing jeans, a worn cerulean sweatshirt, and boat shoes. His look, his blonde hair and boyish face make him look younger, although he is going to turn 40 and have been at the helm of the Spanish-origin house for 10 years. Anderson is a rare bird in the luxury business. She doesn't ask to see the questions before the interview, she doesn't have a court of assistants and she doesn't like formalities. “We sat down right here to talk,” she says in her warm Northern Irish accent, as she settles on a staircase at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. The building, a palace built by the Chinese Communist Party in the mid-1950s to celebrate the economic and cultural triumphs of the Soviet Union, hosts these days Crafted World, Loewe's first major exhibition. There are more than 1,600 square meters in which the 178 years of the brand's history are covered. A feast of sumptuous craftsmanship in the cradle of the new Chinese communism, a sui generis capitalism.
Crafted World pays tribute to the Loewe tradition, but also to the vision with which Anderson has revolutionized and rejuvenated the almost bicentennial Spanish house. The first room of the exhibition addresses the evolution of the firm, from the arrival of Enrique Loewe Roessberg to Spain, in 1872, and his appointment as official supplier of leather goods for the Spanish Royal House to the groundbreaking looks that Anderson designed for Beyoncé's latest tour and for Rihanna's performance at the 2023 Super Bowl.
On a wall of the room, as a welcome to the visitor, there is a phrase by Enrique Loewe Lynch, great-grandson of the founder of the house and fourth generation involved in the business: “We were among the first to make what people now call luxury. . “We have always done things well, in our own way: in a deeply artisanal way.” Jonathan Anderson is more comfortable talking about craftsmanship than luxury. When he arrived at Loewe, in 2013, he gave an interview to Suzy Menkes in which he said that luxury was dead. Executives at LVMH, the firm's parent company since 1996, were baffled. “For me, 'luxury' was an old-fashioned word that had been used for a long time to give legitimacy to a product that had to be sold. “I wanted to break with that concept, imagine that it did not exist and look at Loewe as a cultural brand,” he explains. He says it was the right thing to do, that a decade ago the brand had lost its identity and had become “bourgeois and elitist in a very old sense.” “I didn't connect with young people. That's why I had to get her away from the idea of excess and bring her back to something pure: craftsmanship, culture, art, Spanishness,” he continues. “I'm not Spanish, but I want to make sure that everything I do is important for Spain. I wanted to build something that a country I don't belong to would be proud of.”
For some, what Anderson proposed was almost impossible. But he doesn't usually give up and has no problem undertaking difficult missions. He puts this down to growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, a turbulent time marked by the IRA. At first he wanted to be an actor, but was rejected from The Juilliard School in New York. He then applied to study fashion at Central Saint Martins in London, where he was also rejected. He was finally admitted to the London College of Fashion. At the age of 24 he founded his own brand and at the age of 28 he was already in charge of Loewe.
Anderson took a year to study the history and archives of the house. “It was difficult for me to understand what Loewe was,” she admits. “And it was difficult for the public too.” The greatest symbol of Spanish luxury has a German name and is French property. At LVMH they were eager to see their imprint on the brand. The wait was worth it. His first collection, spring-summer 2015, was a critical success and a declaration of the brand's new master lines: complex, conceptual and artisanal designs, risky and sculptural silhouettes, and unexpected materials.
![The 'Wunderkammern' of Loewe's 'Crafted World' exhibition, a room of wonders that brings together the Spanish house's most precious jewels: from its first pieces of leather goods for the Spanish Royal House to Anderson's designs for Beyoncé and Rihanna.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/qbDLqRNQmeCBnwqu-KHA5YYXZa0=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/AX3RDPQI4BGWTPOKWYPXSLFO3M.jpg)
A room of Crafted World reviews this creative decade of Anderson through 69 of his creations. “For me, each collection was different, but now that I see them all together in a room I perceive that there is a hand, the hand of Loewe,” says the creator, who also serves as curator of the exhibition. Another room is dedicated to the Puzzle, the origami-type bag that he launched in 2014 and which, 10 years later, is the house's best-seller. “The key to its success is that it is very difficult to copy. It is complex to make and takes a long time to produce,” he explains. The Puzzle is made with 75 leather pieces.
Loewe is back where it needed to be, says the designer. “It was founded in 1846 and has never been more relevant than now. It is moving at the pace of the times and that is very important,” he states. The brand has become a powerhouse for LVMH with its collections of ready-to-wear, bags and accessories, perfumes, home products and furniture that sell out in a matter of hours at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. Anderson has also made one of Enrique Loewe's dreams come true: the house has earned a place in men's fashion.
Last year, Loewe also occupied the number one position for the first time in the index published by the Lyst platform, which quarterly tracks the most desired fashion brands and those that make the most noise on the internet. LVMH does not make public the turnover figures of its firms. Fflur Roberts, market analyst at Euromonitor, indicated a few weeks ago to The Telegraph Loewe has a turnover of more than one billion euros a year and is already the eighth largest in sales within the French luxury giant's portfolio.
![The iconic Amazona bag in gold suede, created by Dario Rossi for Loewe in 1974.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/YMXhfcvU_Rgg2GBfP60TKkaZj8Q=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/LIFWNCV6R5EK3GSBZ7BC5HSBX4.jpg)
Part of that success is due to the cultural and youthful touch that Anderson gives to everything he does. He does not usually resort to the Loewe archives to create his collections, but rather each season he draws inspiration from different artists. His designs are full of references to pop culture, cinema, television and music. In recent years she has made collaborations and collections under the influence of icons as diverse as the sculptor Ken Price, the textile designer John Allen, the artist Joe Brainard or the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli, creator of titles such as My neighbor Totoro either Princess Mononoke.
His vision is opening new horizons for Loewe. The brand, which took us to Shanghai to see the exhibition, already has more than 160 stores in the world and is causing a sensation in markets as far away as South Korea, Japan and China. At the Loewe House in Shanghai, located in the Taikoo Li Qiantan shopping center, there are always people. It is decorated with works of art and Spanish crafts, such as the bull heads made by Extremaduran artist Javier Sánchez Medina with esparto grass.
“The exhibition will be traveling, but I wanted it to start here, in Shanghai,” explains the designer. Because? Why does Loewe work so well in Asia? “I think it's because of the craftsmanship. There is authenticity in that. Loewe is not a fake brand. When I think of Spanish culture, I think of an open society, which speaks honestly about how it feels. In that Loewe is very Spanish: it speaks honestly about what it is. “It is faithful to its heritage, without being obvious,” he responds.
![A Loewe dress from the fall-winter 2022-2023 collection.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/sQ5rgm0MYUaKxfhRrJJFjFyC2oM=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/2EAATAUHPNFIXDE6VAWOFXMDBU.jpg)
The Spanish workshops have not stopped growing under the direction of the Northern Irish creator. One room in the exhibition is dedicated to the work of the artisans. “The way leather is treated and assembled in Spain is very different from the Italian or French way. “When you look at a Spanish bag, you see a reality of leather that is very different from others,” says Anderson, who has also promoted the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, an annual award that recognizes communities of creators and artists from around the world and artisanal techniques. unique.
“In the end you have to build something that is not about you, but about the history of a brand that will one day have to continue without you,” he says. She inherited her passion for craftsmanship from her grandfather, a designer who worked in a textile factory making garments for the British Royal Navy. “My grandfather was always making things: knitting, mending and building. I needed that humility that craftsmanship gives you and that keeps you grounded. The craftsman is more important than me because I am not capable of making a bag.”
One of the spaces of Crafted World It is dedicated to Spain. Ceramic plates, jugs and vases made by Picasso and basins from the 19th century dialogue with raffia bags and straw carrycots from Paula's Ibiza, the collection that Anderson presents every summer, inspired by the bohemian designs and patterns of the Pitiusan island. He is fascinated with that Spain of the seventies and eighties, of the Transition and the Madrid Movida, a time that coincided with the reign of the Amazona bag in gold suede and brown leather. But his love affair with this country began long before he discovered what Loewe is. The son of a former Irish rugby star and an English teacher, he grew up in the town of Magherafelt and used to spend summers with his family in Ibiza. “When I think of Spain, I think of good weather, eating out and a carefree life. For me it was important to transfer that ease to the brand,” he says.
![Craftsmen in Loewe workshops make their own tool boxes. They refer to them as “the flower.” Each piece is unique and reflects the personality of the artist.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/sC9clN6CGKm3vdNS_T8017I4j5M=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/RXSQLZN3MRDP7GUHICUUNAZXMM.jpg)
Crafted World spans almost 180 years of history. There are hundreds of pieces. Anderson's favorite is a small black leather jewelry box made in the 1920s. It is decorated with a little silver mouse. For him, it represents everything that Loewe is. “It's a leather piece, handmade, well made, and with an element of humor. When I see it, I think of my journey in this house, a journey that is not just about me, but about a brand and a country. “I don't work for the Spanish tourist office, but I work for a Spanish brand and I feel the responsibility that things are done well.”
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