As Jonathan Anderson’s exquisite light-as-air trapeze dresses zipped around Loewe’s spring/summer 2025 show, whispers of whether it would be the designer’s last collection for the brand got editors hot under the collar. It had, after all, been a season of rumours (not least regarding Matthieu Blazy’s move to Chanel). And that standing ovation from industry peers – from Sarah Burton to Nicolas Di Felice, Kris Van Assche to Pieter Mulier – as well as his usual young Hollywood cohort – hi Josh O’Connor! You too, Ayo Edebiri! – certainly spelled out a sense of occasion befitting his 10th anniversary at the house.
Now, with the cat officially out the bag, we’re in the retrospective phase, wistful for the Puzzles and balloon heels of yore, as the once quiet Madrid fashion house bids farewell to the man who turned its fortunes around. Nowhere has this been more visible than on the red carpet. Until Anderson, with his surrealist, craft-centric, bombastic ideas, took the helm, Hollywood was a foreign entity for Loewe, save for the A-listers loyal to the label’s leather goods.
Granted, it took a while for the weird and wonderful Emma Corrin looks to come to fruition. (Anderson’s Loewe accessories walked so the ready-to-wear could run). But Loewe eveningwear has become a rite of passage for rising stars who want to tread the path to fame in egg-shell heels, as opposed to Manolos, or gargantuan bow-bedecked stilettos rather than Louboutins. Loewe is a byword for experimentation and thus self-expression, but the painstaking artisanship ensures every graphic lip bodice or gravity-defying hemline is rooted in quality, not gimmickry. Without Anderson, many of fashion’s bright young things, who are lauded for their cerebral takes on occasionwear, would be further down best-dressed lists.
Of course the viral campaigns – starring the likes of Maggie Smith and Daniel Craig – have also done their bit to propel Loewe into Tinseltown’s sphere. Ditto its sponsorship of the 2024 Met Gala – the biggest platform in the industry, which saw risk-taker Greta Lee channel Stella Tennant in an angelic transparent-lace Loewe confection that somehow looked decidedly punk at the same time.
Below, revisit 10 Loewe red-carpet looks that have helped shape the conceptualist’s career so far.
