EXCLUSIVE: Loewe Confirms Jonathan Anderson Is Stepping Down

Jonathan Anderson is departing after 11 years as creative director of Loewe, which he transformed from a small, reputable Spanish leather house into a vibrant global luxury brand steeped in contemporary culture.

Loewe announced his exit in a short statement shared exclusively with WWD. It did not say what Anderson’s next move might be — or mention any successor.

However, it is practically an open secret in Paris that Anderson is heading to Dior — and may have already started working on the spring 2026 menswear collection there.

Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who in January stepped down from their New York-based label, are widely expected to succeed Anderson at Loewe.

“While reflecting on the last 11 years, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by people with the imagination, the skills, the tenacity and the resourcefulness to find a way to say ‘Yes’ to all my wildly ambitious ideas,” Anderson said in the statement. “While my chapter draws to a close, Loewe’s story will continue for many years to come, and I will look on with pride, watching it continue to grow, the amazing Spanish brand I once called home.”

Pascale Lepoivre, chief executive officer of Loewe, expressed her gratitude to Anderson for the “unmatched creativity, passion and dedication that he has given to Loewe. With him as its creative director, the house has risen to new heights with international recognition. The Puzzle bag, celebrating its 10th anniversary, has become a true icon, and the brand codes that he has created, rooted in craft, will live on as his legacy.”

Sidney Toledano, a veteran of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton who has been CEO of Christian Dior Couture, head of LVMH Fashion Group, and an adviser to LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, said he has “had the pleasure of working with some of the great artistic directors of recent times, and I consider Jonathan Anderson to be amongst the very best.”

“What he has contributed to Loewe goes beyond creativity. He has built a rich and eclectic world with strong foundations in craft which will enable the house to thrive long after his departure,” Toledano added.

The development seems to set the stage for a blockbuster European runway season this fall, which will also see the debut of designer Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, of his successor Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta — and quite possibly the new creative directors at Gucci, Dior and Loewe.

To be sure, Anderson set a high bar at Loewe, transforming a Madrid-based house known mostly for leather goods, gifts and perfumes into a global player synonymous with daring fashions, quirky collaborations with the likes of Studio Ghibli, and whimsical campaigns, the latest featuring bodybuilders and knights in full armor posing next to models.

His designs for Loewe and his signature brand JW Anderson earned a heap of awards, including the 2022 WWD Honor for Womenswear Designer of the Year, International Designer of the Year Award at the 2023 CFDA Fashion Awards, the Neiman Marcus Award for Creative Impact in the Field of Fashion in 2023 and Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2024 and 2023.

Revenues Rose Sevenfold

The designs also helped catapult the scale of the Loewe business, with revenues multiplying by more than seven times over his tenure to approach 2 billion euros, market sources estimate.

A constant throughout Anderson’s Loewe tenure has been a focus on craft, which stems from his personal affection for arts and crafts antiques, and his appreciation for weavers and potters.

A longtime collector of ceramics and wood-turning pieces, the designer established the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2016. Its 2025 edition attracted more than 4,500 applications from around the world, with a winner to be revealed in Madrid on June 29.

The annual competition pays tribute to Loewe’s roots as a leather-making collective and supplier to the Spanish royal crown.

The company was founded in 1846 and acquired in 1996 by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which first installed designer Narciso Rodriguez, then José Enrique Oña Selfa, and then Stuart Vevers, who exited in 2013 when he moved to Coach.

The same year, LVMH acquired a 46 percent stake in the JW Anderson label and handed Anderson the creative leadership at Loewe.

At the time, LVMH said the designer, then only 29, submitted a brilliant proposal offering a fresh, modern and a new way of looking at Loewe, while respecting its history.

“Luxury ultimately had to fall into the cultural landscape for it to be able to become relevant,” Anderson told WWD in a 2023 interview. “The brand is about storytelling. There is a complex language that is being built, but ultimately it is about bringing people on the journey with either something they expect or something they don’t expect. I think that’s what’s nice about Loewe — you cannot pigeonhole it.

“The job of a creative director today is to bring the DNA of the brand to the forefront and make it relevant for the period — not to alter the actual the DNA of the brand itself.”

Indeed, his makeover of Loewe has been sure-handed and innovative.

He initially appropriated ’90s-era fashion imagery as present-day ad campaigns; brought an unvarnished, spontaneous spirit to the typically glossy luxury world, and introduced some dramatic store concepts with artistic elements, including Picasso ceramics and Rennie Mackintosh chairs, positing the brand in a broader cultural context.

With his tousled hair, loose crewneck sweaters, jeans — and a cup of coffee seemingly glued to his right hand — the effusive, stern-faced designer resembles a university student forever cramming for exams.

Journalists relish his post-show, stream-of-consciousness musings, during which he shares a tumble of historical and artistic references that somehow add up to very original, compelling fashions.

While some designers chase viral moments via stunts or the right celebrity affiliations, Anderson creates fireworks via emphatic, sharply executed design ideas, both for Loewe and his JW Anderson brand, which has a slightly younger, more irreverent spirit.

Simmering under the surface of both brands are references to art and surrealism, plus sly commentary about the perils of technology, social media and our estrangement from nature.

In recent years, Anderson has described his Loewe as “stripped back,” “primal,” “reduced” and “blunt.”

Meanwhile, he has earned a reputation for handbags — headlined by the perennially popular Puzzle bag, and more recently the Flamenco and Squeeze models — and eye-catching shoes with birthday candles, bars of soap, nail polish bottles, short-stemmed roses, broken eggs or squashed balloons serving as heels.

Born in Northern Ireland in 1984, Anderson studied menswear at the London College of Fashion, graduating in 2005 and going on to work in visual merchandising at Prada under Manuela Pavesi. He consulted for several brands before launching JW Anderson in 2008.

He quickly attracted attention for provocative and androgynous designs such as frilly Bermuda shorts and bandeau tops for men. And his womenswear shows quickly became the most sought-after ticket of London Fashion Week.

At the root of everything he does is daring.

“For me, fashion is exciting, and it should be exciting whether you get it wrong or right,” he told WWD in a 2015 interview. “If you do generic things, you know, after a while, brands or designers become stagnated. You have to be slightly uncomfortable with what you’re doing, and you have to be able to try to find moments of newness.”