LOEWE

LOEWE was founded in 1846 by a group of Spanish craftsmen in Madrid as a leather making collective. The workshop opened on calle Lobo, a bustling street in the heart of Madrid, and initially produced small leather goods such as purses, wallets, cigarette and jewelry cases, and frames.

In 1872, Enrique Loewe Roessberg, a German leather craftsman who had settled in Madrid, joined forces with the workshop, fixing the name and the house’s commercial direction.

By the early twentieth century the brand was tied to the Spanish court. In 1905, it received the royal warrant as official supplier to the Spanish Royal Crown, granted by King Alfonso XIII to Enrique Loewe Hinton, the second-generation owner, a designation that defined how the house was perceived for decades, as a Madrid leather workshop favoured by royalty.

Menswear arrived late but became central to the modern identity of the house. In 1965, LOEWE launched its first ready-to-wear collection, and the proper menswear line came under Jonathan Anderson, whose spring menswear collection marked Anderson’s premier show and the first-ever ready-to-wear menswear line for Loewe.

That collection included high canvas cuffed jeans, suede polo shirts, and a waterproof leather jacket. The design language drew on the brand’s leather archive and on Spanish references, including Javier Carvajal, the Spanish architect responsible for Loewe’s mid-century store design and clean, Modernist image, alongside untreated leather, python espadrilles, and turn-up trousers.

From the very start, his designs were marked by signature elements that remain synonymous with his work today, obscure references, androgynous silhouettes, sinister flourishes, and a distinct emphasis on craftsmanship and materials. Within the LVMH stable, this placed LOEWE closer in spirit to Miu Miu and Bottega Veneta than to the older French houses, and Anderson’s standing was confirmed when he became the first individual to be awarded both Womenswear and Menswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2015.

The business changed shape across the twentieth century. It made a significant leap into ready-to-wear in 1965 and became part of the LVMH group in 1996, after which a sequence of designers, Narciso Rodriguez, José Enrique Oña Selfa, and Stuart Vevers (2008–2013) followed. During Vever’s tenure, Loewe scaled back fashion to concentrate on handbags, leather apparel and a substantial gift business based on leather picture frames and leather boxes.

Anderson’s eleven-year run reset the house commercially and critically. According to a 2025 New Yorker article on his tenure, Loewe became “both a darling among critics and a commercial dynamo” under Anderson. Following high-profile collaborations, including designing several custom performance looks for American singer Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour and strong online and physical campaign performance in China, Loewe topped the Lyst’s Hottest Brand Index for the first time in the second quarter of 2023, a position previously held by Prada.

After Anderson’s departure, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez were appointed as creative directors in 2025, also located in Paris. The house now dresses an actor-heavy roster, including Josh O’Connor, Jamie Dornan, Taylor Russell, and Daniel Craig, and sits in the upper tier of the LVMH group as a Madrid-rooted leather house with a Paris design office and a strong menswear runway presence.