Loewe names Proenza Schouler duo as new creative directors

It’s official, Loewe has named the Proenza Schouler duo of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez to be the house’s new creative directors.

 
The appointment had been widely expected, and applauded even before the official confirmatipn. The announcement comes five days after Loewe revealed that its longstanding designer Jonathan Anderson was leaving the house after 11 years at the helm. 
 
Anderson is widely expected to be named the creative director of Dior – another fashion house withing the giant LVMH group – in the not-too-distant future.

“We are incredibly honored to join Loewe, a house whose values and mission along closely with our own,” McCollough and Hernandez said in a press release from Loewe.

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez will have the entire creative responsibility of all Loewe collections across womenswear, menswear, leather goods and accessories, Loewe underlined in its release.
 
Their appointment takes effect of April 7, though their arrival had been anticipated ever since they announced plans to step down from their Proenza Schouler, the New York based fashion house they founded a quarter century ago, in January of this year.
 
The brand name Proenza Schouler is taken from the maiden name of the designers’ two mothers. McCollough and Hernandez debuted their runway career in 2002 immediately winning a loyal following for their sophisticated uptown cool-gal style. Graduates of Parsons School of Design, the duo built a successful label that became one of the half dozen must-see collections during each New York Fashion Week. They even staged two shows in Paris in 2017 and 2018 that were highly acclaimed by local French and international critics.

 
McCollough and Hernandez certainly have large shoes to fill. Under Anderson, Loewe’s sales rose from just below €250 million to close to €1 billion during the Norther Irish designer’s tenure. Prior to Anderson, Loewe had difficult filling the seats at its shows, but after his arrival the Spanish-born label became the hottest ticket in Paris Fashion Week, as he connected inventive craftmanship with avant garde tailoring and draping, and soupcon of upbeat surrealism.
 
“We look forward to working alongside its extraordinary teams and artisans, whose talent – under the exceptional creative direction of Jonathan Anderson – has shaped Loewe into the cultural force it is today,” they added. 
 
“We extend our sincere gratitude to Bernard Arnault, Delphine Arnault, Sidney Toledano, and to Pascale Lepoivre for entrusting us with this remarkable house’s next chapter,” added the American duo, referring the Arnault family which controls LVMH.
 
“Jack and Lazaro’s vision and creativity are a perfect match for the codes of the house that we have built,” added Lepoivre, Loewe chief executive officer, in Monday’s statement.
 
“I have long admired Jack and Lazaro’s work at Proenza Schouler, their eclectic creativity and dedication to craft make them a natural choice to build the next chapter for Loewe,” commented Toledano, the CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, which encompasses a half dozen brands including Loewe, Givenchy, Celine, Kenzo and Pucci. 
 
The design of Jack and Lazaro – as they are universally called – over the past two decades has played an important role in shaping modern fashion while cultivating an ongoing dialogue with contemporary culture. Their design practice, rooted in a rigorous exploration of craft filtered through an artistic sensibility, has evolved the industry’s landscape, and aligns with the values which underscore Loewe’s 179-year heritage, the house added.