Latest news with #JonathanAnderson
Vogue
a day ago
- Business
- Vogue
In Madrid, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize Has a Homecoming—and Opens a New Chapter
Nine years ago in Madrid, Jonathan Anderson launched a project that would serve as the beating heart of his wildly influential 11-year tenure as creative director of Loewe: the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. An annual exhibition and competition that spotlights makers and artisans from around the world, it quickly became a foundational tenet of Anderson's philosophy at Loewe. There is an emphasis both on the Spanish house's rich legacy of craftsmanship, and the Northern Irish designer's fascination with boldly warping those techniques into new and unexpected forms. This week, the prize ceremony returned to Madrid—without Anderson, following the announcement in March that Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez would be taking the reins as creative directors of Loewe, but with as much energy and enthusiasm as ever. After all, part of Anderson's brilliance was that he built Loewe to be a 'cultural brand,' in his own words, creating an identity distinct enough that it can be transferred to a pair of new hands and reshaped into something fresh, without losing its essential DNA. 'The first time [we did the craft prize in Madrid], the world didn't know about the Loewe Foundation and didn't know what we wanted to support,' Sheila Loewe, president of the Loewe Foundation, said in an interview. 'Coming back, after all the places that we have been, it is like really a dream. Even when we're traveling around the world, we always have Spain in our hearts.'
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
After nearly a decade at Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri steps down as artistic director
PARIS, May 30 — Dior announced Thursday that Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was stepping down as artistic director of the French fashion house's women's collection after almost a decade on the job. Dior has boomed since Chiuri took over in 2016, becoming the second-biggest brand in the stable of luxury labels owned by French powerhouse LVMH. The 61-year-old designer's modernisation and feminist activism helped attract new customers. Chiuri, who was the first woman to be named Dior's creative director after a career at Italian brands Valentino and Fendi, had long been rumoured to be on her way out. 'The House of Dior wishes today to express its deepest gratitude to Maria Grazia Chiuri after a wonderful collaboration as Artistic Director of the Women's collections since 2016,' Dior said in a statement. 'After nine years, I am leaving the House of Dior, delighted by the extraordinary opportunity I have been given,' Chiuri said in the statement. Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson, who was named creative director of Dior Men last month, has been tipped as a possible successor, which would make him the first person to head both the men's and women's collections. If that came to be, it would give 'greater consistency' between the men's and women's offerings and would be 'impactful for the public and for consumers', said Serge Carreira, an academic specialising in the luxury industry. Already anticipation is building around Anderson's first Dior menswear show in June. Chiuri's last show Chiuri on Tuesday presented Dior Women's 2026 Cruise collection in Rome, the city of her birth, in an 18th century villa. The show concluded with a standing ovation for the designer. Guests including Silvia Venturini Fendi, granddaughter of Fendi's founders and the menswear artistic director of the brand, and Valentino founder Valentino Garavani. The Dior Women's 2026 Cruise collection in Rome. — AFP pic After training at Italy's Istituto Europeo di Design, Chiuri worked for Fendi in the 1990s before joining Valentino in 1999, where she and artistic partner Pier Paolo Piccioli became creative co-directors. In 2016, she was tapped to succeed Raf Simons at Dior, and 'she really wrote a whole chapter in Dior's history', said Carreira, who teaches at Paris's Sciences Po university. Even if some critics argued that she lacked creativity, he disagreed, saying: 'She managed to boost and create a very consistent identity at Dior Women... that she constantly refreshed and fed with new ideas.' Speculation already swirled around Chiuri's future at her last Paris Fashion Week in March. Her face was inscrutable at the end of a 25-minute Fall/Winter 2025 show in the Tuileries Gardens, as she briefly acknowledged applause from a crowd that was relatively low on A-list celebrities. Important to LVMH Some observers had suggested the classic French house was growing stale. Its growth is of crucial financial and dynastic importance to LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, who placed his daughter Delphine in charge of Dior in February 2023. In the Dior statement, Delphine Arnault praised Chiuri's 'immense work with an inspiring feminist viewpoint and exceptional creativity'. Speaking to Grazia magazine in February, Chiuri said she had seen the fashion business change greatly over her 40-year career. 'Fashion used to be about family companies and there were small audiences — clients and buyers,' she said. 'Now fashion is like a channel. It's something more popular, it's like pop. It's a form of media.' LVMH's global first-quarter results were weaker than expected, with sales over the period dropping two percent against the backdrop of trade uncertainty unleashed by US President Donald Trump's tariffs. French group Hermes overtook LVMH as the world's most valuable luxury company in April after shares in the Louis Vuitton maker tumbled following weaker-than-expected quarterly sales. LVMH shares have been sliding since the end of February. — AFP
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Creative director Chiuri leaves Dior, Anderson tipped for wider role
PARIS (Reuters) -Maria Grazia Chiuri has left her job as creative director of Dior women's collections, the luxury fashion brand owned by LVMH said on Thursday, with Dior menswear designer Jonathan Anderson widely tipped to take a bigger role. Chiuri's departure marks the latest change in a big reshuffle of creative directors at top luxury brands. The industry is grappling with a slowdown in demand and the fashion and leather goods division of LVMH, which includes other brands like Louis Vuitton and Fendi, posted a 5% fall in sales in the first quarter. Anderson, who left LVMH's smaller label Loewe in March, is one of a new generation of designers taking over some of the world's biggest fashion labels. He is due to create a June collection for Dior Men's Fashion, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said last month. "We think the departure clears the path for Jonathan Anderson to assume a consolidated leadership role across Dior", said UBS analyst Zuzanna Pusz. A spokesperson for Dior declined to comment on succession plans. Bernard Arnault's daughter Delphine Arnault, the chief executive of Christian Dior Couture, thanked Chiuri for creating "highly desirable collections". "She has written a key chapter in the history of Christian Dior, contributing significantly to its tremendous growth," she said in a statement. Chiuri, in the same statement, said she was "immensely proud" of the nine years she spent in the job. The Italian designer, 61, was the first woman to hold the position of creative director in Dior's almost 80-year history. Before joining the French brand in 2016, Chiuri worked for Valentino and Fendi. Chiuri held her last fashion show for Dior at Villa Albani in Rome - her hometown - earlier this week, presenting the brand's cruise collection. Chiuri is also known for her feminism, which she has brought to the catwalk, featuring a white t-shirt with the quote "We Should All Be Feminists" in her first Dior show. Earlier this month French luxury group Kering said it had appointed former Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli as creative director at Balenciaga, replacing Demna who is taking up the chief design job at the group's top label Gucci. Designer changes have also taken place at Chanel, Versace, Valentino and LVMH-owned Celine among others. Sign in to access your portfolio
Vogue
2 days ago
- Business
- Vogue
Ten Years of the Loewe Puzzle Bag: A Cubist Classic Celebrates a Decade
Before the Loewe Puzzle bag ever made its debut on a Paris runway—before it earned its cult status, celebrity fanbase, and gallery-grade reissues—it existed first as an idea. A radical one at that: a cuboid bag, seemingly origami-folded, but in reality, hand-pieced from precision-cut panels of leather by artisans in Loewe's storied Spanish atelier. Ten years later, the Puzzle still defies category—at once avant-garde and deeply classic, practical yet imbued with the magic of high fashion. To mark a decade of this icon, Loewe is launching the Puzzle 10 collection: a limited-edition lineup comprising 19 re-editions of archival Puzzle bags—each plucked from the brand's richly inventive past—and one jubilant newcomer. The anniversary collection is a celebration not just of a silhouette, but of the artistry that defines the house. The Puzzle first appeared on the Loewe men's spring 2015 runway in Paris. At the time, it was a soft-spoken revolution: the bag's ingenious geometry allowed it to fold flat, while still maintaining an architectural structure once full. It took nine painstaking hours to construct, and its shape—new, novel, and unlike anything else on the market—quickly earned a place on the arms of collectors, stylists, and fashion lovers alike. Designed under then creative director Jonathan Anderson, the Puzzle bag became emblematic of his vision for Loewe: deeply artisanal, rooted in Spanish heritage, but filtered through a thoroughly modern—and often irreverent—lens. (A quick survey of past Puzzles reveals denim, dice, a kiwi fruit, and a varsity 'L' appliqué among the motifs.) For the Puzzle's 10-year anniversary, Loewe, now under the creative direction of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, has opened the archives and pulled from its most imaginative creations. The Puzzle 10 collection includes re-editions like the Cloud bag of spring 2017, printed with dreamy cumulus across each angled panel, and the Polka edition, whose bold intarsia dots nodded to mid-century couture and 19th-century novels alike. There's the Patchwork version—stamped with the word 'WELCOME' along its shoulder strap, as if inviting us all in—and the Pixel Puzzle, a postmodern glitch in grayscale that recalls early internet graphics and made waves on the spring 2023 runway. For those who prefer a fine arts flourish, there's the painterly Ken Price bag, constructed using Loewe's signature leather marquetry, and the richly embroidered Joe Brainard edition, decorated with pansies inspired by the New York School artist's beloved collages. Literature, too, finds its way in: a William Morris edition melds Victorian florals with punky hardware, and the Mackintosh Puzzle pays tribute to the Scottish artist's stained-glass rose motifs. Loewe Puzzle 10 Joe Brainard re-edition bag $5,400 LOEWE Loewe Puzzle 10 William Morris re-edition bag $6,800 LOEWE Not to be missed is the sole newcomer to the mix, the Puzzle Confetti, which is pure celebration. Hand-embroidered with thousands of metallic and leather sequins, it captures the jubilant mood of the anniversary in every pastel-pink and silver flicker. (The design takes cues from Italian artist Lara Favaretto's confetti cube installation for Loewe's Fall 2023 women's show—10 tonnes of paper joy, reimagined in calfskin.)
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 days ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
LVMH Fashion Brand Dior Says Creative Director Chiuri Has Stepped Down
Dior, the fashion brand that is part of French luxury giant LVMH, said on Thursday that Maria Grazia Chiuri had left her job as creative director of its women's collections, a post she had held since 2016. Chiuri's departure is likely to pave the way for Jonathan Anderson as her replacement, Reuters said. Anderson, who left LVMH's smaller label Loewe in March 17, is one of a new generation of designers taking over some of the world's biggest fashion labels amid a sweeping industry overhaul. He is due to create a June collection for Dior Men's Fashion, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault said last month. A spokesperson for Dior declined to comment on succession plans. Bernard Arnault's daughter Delphine Arnault, the chief executive of Christian Dior Couture, thanked Chiuri for creating "highly desirable collections". "She has written a key chapter in the history of Christian Dior, contributing significantly to its tremendous growth," she said in a statement. Chiuri, in the same statement, said she was "immensely proud" of the nine years she spent in the job.
