Latest news with #Magherafelt
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The normal bloke from Derry - who became the head of Christian Dior: Fashion house's latest creative director Jonathan Anderson is the son of a rugby player and school teacher and grew up shopping at TK Maxx
Christian Dior's latest creative director is from a rugby-loving family from Northern Ireland, failed his 11-plus and spent his childhood indulging in shopping at TK Maxx. But now Jonathan Anderson, who has rubbed shoulders with the fashion world's most celebrated figures, will himself be at the helm of a luxury house's visions. The designer, 40, hailing from Magherafelt, of County Derry, grew up as the eldest of three, as the son of rugby union legend Willie Anderson, and Heather Buckley, a secondary school teacher. 'Growing up, I was never very good at rugby – I didn't really enjoy it. I did a bit of swimming. I never felt a pressure to be sporty or anything like that; our household was never that kind of system,' he admitted in an interview with The Gloss. 'Looking back, I think I was probably a very demanding child; probably quite selfish or always wanting something. I probably was too ambitious or maybe it was that I was constantly changing my mind. I did theatre and arts, and I would put on plays with my brother and sister.' Far from amateur productions with his siblings in the living room, Jonathan would go on to achieve successes with his own high fashion label - JW Anderson - as well as working with A-listers after designing Rihanna 's Super Bowl ensemble. He has now taken over from Maria Grazia Chiuri, who joined as Dior's first female artistic director of women's haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories in 2016, and Kim Jones who served as Dior's artistic director of menswear for seven years. 'I have always been inspired by the rich history of this House, its depth, and empathy,' Jonathan expressed. 'I look forward to working alongside its legendary Ateliers to craft the next chapter of this incredible story.' It comes after an impressive 11-year tenure at the head of creatively playful powerhouse Loewe, a role he flourished in all while remaining head of JW Anderson, which has enjoyed collaborations with retailing giant UNIQLO since 2017. While Jonathan himself has been candid about feeling like a 'failure' when he was young and being 'twisted' in confusion of what his future would look like (at one point he considered being a vet), it appears others around him were sure of a future fashionista. Speaking to British Vogue, in a special edition that saw Jonathan's old teachers speak to the outlet, one old educator said: 'Once I said, "Jonathan, what about fashion?" 'And he looked at me, folded his arms with that expression that he does, and said, 'Are you for real, Miss? They'll all think I'm a big Jenny Wren.'' Elsewhere his father Willie told The Gloss: 'We could see Jonathan's artistic side from an early age – he was always drawing. 'It comes from my wife and her father, who was a textile designer. Jonathan's acting was fantastic, too. He did Fagan in Oliver, which was outstanding. I'm trying to get a copy of it at the moment.' The rugby icon - whose son Thomas has too taken after him in a career in sport - however added that he feels fashion, much like his own industry, is 'about resilience'. 'We've been to shows at both London and Paris Fashion Week and the tension beforehand is the exact same as a big game,' he expressed. 'As a coach, you're just hoping they go onto the pitch – or down the runway – exactly the way you want them to.' Jonathan's childhood was, however, also backgrounded with a difficult political time, as The Troubles plagued Northern Ireland. 'I remember when they blew up Magherafelt high street, and driving past it every day when travelling to school. I remember a sports shop being blown off the face of the earth,' he told British Vogue. 'There's definitely something about growing up in Ireland. The craft, the family, the harshness – that has stayed with me.' Ireland is not the only place which has resonated with Jonathan's designs. The creative was also the mastermind behind LOEWE's Paula's Ibiza, a capsule collection of clothes and accessories inspired by the Spanish 70s boutique of the same name that came as a result of his reaching out to owners Armin Heinemann and Stuart Rudnick. 'Paula's Ibiza came about because of me trying to work out how to be Spanish,' he explained to AnOther, as his family had a house on the island. 'In a weird way the only connection I had to Spain was Ibiza. I didn't go to Madrid or Barcelona. I remember Paula's Ibiza from when I was a kid and then that brand disappeared. That is Spain for me, and I love the idea of being able to start a brand within a brand like that, of buying the intellectual property and owning it. There's colour, it's lightweight – it is incredibly hot in Madrid. If you can't reflect the country the brand is from, forget being able to sell it to the rest of the world.' While he has always had an eye for style, Jonathan's career first saw him moving to the US to try and become an actor, aged 18. He was enrolled at the prestigious Juilliard School for a year and a half but then dropped out. 'My parents were like, "Get back here right now. You're spending way too much money",' he told the outlet. On his return, Jonathan bagged a job at the Brown Thomas department store in Dublin, and later made his way to the London College of Fashion, from which he graduated in 2005. The designer's next foray into the fashion world was as a Prada merchandiser in the Irish capital, RTE reports, where he worked on window displays for the company. It's there that Jonathan met Manuela Pavesi, the eccentric collaborator of the late Miuccia Prada - at one point its head designer and the founder of subsidiary Miu Miu. According to the outlet, up until 2015, when she passed away, Jonathan had previewed each of his collections to her and 'received his real education' in the industry from doing so. Now, Jonathan himself will be spearheading the vision at a major design label. 'Jonathan Anderson is one of the greatest creative talents of his generation,' emphasised Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH. 'His incomparable artistic signature will be a crucial asset in writing the next chapter of the history of the House of Dior. Anderson's debut women's ready-to-wear collection will take place this October during Paris Fashion Week, following his debut with the Dior menswear collection on the 27th of this month.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Jonathan Anderson: the esoteric designer taking on the mantle at Dior
Long before the designer Jonathan Anderson stepped down from his role at Loewe in March, it was rumoured he would be heading for Dior. So when it was finally announced – six months after Dior's menswear designer left, and four days after its womenswear head, Maria Grazia Chiuri, showed a collection in Rome – it surprised no one. Yet Anderson's newfound position at luxury's centre of gravity still sets Dior, a grand fashion institution, careering down an experimental path. As Delphine Arnault, the chair and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, told Vogue Business: 'For any house, having new artistic direction can be a challenge.' A critical darling and commercial success, Anderson made Loewe into a fashion week hype machine and Hollywood powerhouse while creating shoes with perspex cracked eggs for heels, art-directing Daniel Craig's post-Bond relaunch in specs and quirky knits, and casting the late Dame Maggie Smith as a model in an advertising campaign at the age of 88. Anderson's role at Loewe was also lucrative. Since he took over, the brand's annual revenues increased fivefold. With the move to Dior he will now probably become the most prolific designer in fashion; assuming he continues to work on his own brand (JW Anderson), as well as his collaboration with Uniqlo, it is expected he will show 18 collections a year. The world of high fashion is a long way from Anderson's early days in Northern Ireland. He was born in 1984 in Magherafelt, a town otherwise famous for cropping up in Seamus Heaney's early work, and went to school during the Troubles. Raised Protestant, he has spoken in the past about passing through checkpoints on his way to school. 'It does make you quite hard because emotionally you were toughened by that,' he recently told New York Magazine. Anderson's father, Willie, was captain of the Ireland rugby team, and something of a character; in 1980, he spent three months in an Argentininan prison for stealing the national flag from outside a government building while on tour. Anderson's mother, Heather, was an English teacher. As parents, they were wholly supportive of his career. 'You'll do anything for your kid if you believe their dream is not something that's beyond them,' said his father, adding that they 're-mortgaged the house to try and get him through certain points'. Anderson left home aged 18 to study acting in Washington DC, but changed his mind, returning home to work in the Dublin department store Brown Thomas. It was around this time he got into fashion, though he was turned down by every school he applied to except the London College of Fashion, which was piloting a new menswear course. He went on to launch his namesake brand JW Anderson in 2008. LVMH took a minority stake in the brand in 2013, and Anderson worked at Loewe from 2013 until spring this year. One of a new raft of power designers to share an art-college enthusiasm for avant-garde projects, he was never a designer in the pure 'cutting and draping' sense (though he completed his degree), relating more to Miuccia Prada, who studied political science before going into fashion. Anderson's arrival at Dior is part of a changing of the guard at leading houses that in recent months has seen Chanel appoint the French-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy and Gucci sign the Georgian fashion designer Demna. Dior's announcement is the latest move in a frenzied round of musical chairs at fashion's top table, the impact of which will be seen at fashion weeks in the second half of 2025. An immediate consequence of the recent personnel changes has been a rollback of female representation in fashion's most prestigious roles. Anderson replaces Chiuri, Dior's first female designer, who modernised the ladylike codes of the house while supporting and referencing a range of female artisans and artists. She became well-liked for attempting – however clumsily with her 'We should all be feminists' T-shirts – to use her might and financial power to modernise feminism in fashion. With the exception of the appointments of two British female designers – Sarah Burton at Givenchy, and Louise Trotter, who replaces Blazy at Bottega Veneta – the incoming class of designers is overwhelmingly male. Still, as far as the male gaze is concerned, Anderson is well known for covering up the wearer's body, albeit with anthuriums and deflated balloons as well as actual clothes. He created Rihanna's bump-shaped red leather corset worn at the 2023 Super Bowl for an internet-breaking pregnancy reveal, and collaborated with the sculptor Lynda Benglis on a stage set that turned a Paris show space into a gallery. He also launched the most in-demand handbag of modern times, the Puzzle bag, and has dressed Beyoncé, Zendaya and Greta Lee. Anderson's references have always come from outside the fashion world, namely craft, surrealism and cultural history (one JW Anderson show was inspired by Rasputin gone skiing). As a result, the traditional narrative – in which young designers opt into commercial success by bending their taste toward the mainstream – has so far failed to apply in the case of Anderson, who has become more avant garde rather than less as his career has progressed. Yet however esoteric his designs, Anderson's appointment suggests the mega-conglomerate LVMH is valuing creativity over celebrity. As Arnault said: 'I think this is going to be great for the maison. There will be consistency and coherence in the products, but also in terms of communication, I think our message will be much clearer.' The idea is that Anderson will bring some of his own team and hopefully, his customers will follow suit. Whatever the hype surrounding his appointment, he is still tasked with turning around the fortunes of Dior, which saw sales decrease from €9.5bn in 2023 to €8.7bn in 2024, per an HSBC estimate. But as Arnault has said: 'It takes a few seasons to see exactly what the vision is. But I think he's totally energised by the idea.'
BreakingNews.ie
2 days ago
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Man (54) dies in Co Derry crash
A man has died in a road crash in Co Derry. Tony Wright, 54, sustained fatal injuries in the single-vehicle collision involving a van he was driving in Magherafelt. Advertisement The incident happened at around 12:10pm on Sunday on the Grange Road. Mr Wright, who was from the Magherafelt area, was taken to hospital where he later died. The PSNI has appealed to witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage from the area at the time to come forward.
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Magherafelt: Man dies after single-vehicle crash
A man has died following a single-vehicle crash in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, on Wright, 54, from the Magherafelt area, was taken to hospital for treatment to his injuries but died a short time received a report of the crash on the Grange Road at around 12.10 BST on involved a silver Peugeot partner van. Police have asked for any witnesses or anyone with dash-cam or other footage to contact them.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Dior: NI-born designer Jonathan Anderson becomes fashion brand's creative director
Northern Ireland-born fashion designer Jonathan Anderson has announced he is to take on the role of creative director of both women's and men's collections at April, Anderson confirmed he was to become the artistic director of the luxury French fashion house menswear, one month after stepping back as creative director at Loewe after more than 10 years in the becomes the first designer to head both the women's and men's lines at the well-known 40-year-old, who was born in Magherafelt in County Londonderry, said it was a "great honour" to take on the role. "I have always been inspired by the rich history of this House, its depth, and empathy," he said in an Instagram post on Monday."I look forward to working alongside its legendary Ateliers to craft the next chapter of this incredible story." Anderson is to take on the womenswear collection after it's artistic director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, announced her departure after almost a decade in the job last January, British designer Kim Jones stepped down as artistic director for Dior's move to Dior is part of a major reshuffling of jobs at global fashion brands following some resignations and forced departures. Who is Jonathan Anderson? Anderson is known for his innovative styles and gender-fluid designs, and has created some iconic and recognisable looks throughout his 2023, he crafted Rihanna's Super Bowl half-time performance outfit, which she used to announce her pregnancy and Ariana Grande's 2024 Met Gala trained at the London College of Fashion, before beginning his career in Prada's marketing launched his eponymous brand JW Anderson in 2008, before being appointed as the creative director at Loewe - a Spanish leather goods brand founded in 1846 - in 2013. One of his designs, a colourful patchwork crochet cardigan worn by singer Harry Styles which inspired a viral TikTok trend amongst fans during the Covid-19 pandemic, was added to London's Victoria and Albert Museum fashion collection earlier this has won a number of high-profile awards, including Designer of the Year at the 2024 Fashion Awards in December for the second year in a is also the son of former Ireland rugby captain, Willie Anderson.
