Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are the new creative directors of Loewe.Photo: Jeff Henrikson
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are succeeding Jonathan Anderson at the helm of Loewe. On the eve of the announcement, the founders of Proenza Schouler spoke exclusively to Vogue Business about joining the LVMH-owned Spanish fashion house.
“We’ve, of course, followed Loewe for a long time and have the deepest respect for what has been built over the past decade — it’s truly incredible,” Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez shared with Vogue Business on Sunday evening. A few hours later, on Monday morning, the founders and former creative directors of Proenza Schouler would be appointed creative directors of the LVMH-owned Spanish fashion house. Their nomination, which is effective 7 April, comes exactly a week after Loewe confirmed the departure of longtime creative director Jonathan Anderson.
“The house’s values have always spoken to us and align very closely with our own: a commitment to craft and the arts, the freedom and love of experimentation and pushing boundaries, and, of course, a deep engagement with culture,” the designer duo added. “These are all things we’ve consistently pursued at Proenza Schouler, albeit on a smaller, more independent scale. The goal is to honour the codes of the house through the lens of our own cultural histories and personal aesthetic perspectives. The role of a creative director today, in our view, is to highlight the brand’s core identity in a new way and make it resonate with the current moment.”
The first thing they plan to do upon arriving is to meet the teams, artisans, and craftspeople. “The level of craft that comes out of this house is second to none so we’re beyond excited to learn, collaborate, and together help shape the next chapter of this remarkable brand’s history,” they said.
McCollough and Hernandez rose to fame in 2002 when they founded New York cult label Proenza Schouler after graduating from Parsons School of Design. Known for its cool-girl, New York spirit, the label became an NYFW mainstay over the last two decades, save for a short-lived stint showing in Paris for SS18 and AW18. McCollough and Hernandez announced their departure from Proenza Schouler in January but will remain on the board and continue to be shareholders. A new creative director is yet to be announced.
“When we stepped down from Proenza Schouler earlier this year, we spoke about the importance of having multiple and diverse chapters in life to keep things interesting and moving forward. When Loewe called we knew it was a challenge we wanted to take on,” McCollough and Hernandez explained about their decision to leave the label they founded. “We’ve known Delphine Arnault [chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture] and Sidney Toledano [advisor to LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault] for years and have stayed in touch. We have immense admiration and respect for everything they’ve built.”
In the house’s release on Monday, Toledano is quoted saying that McCollough and Hernandez’s “eclectic creativity and dedication to craft make them a natural choice to build the next chapter for Loewe”.
They have big shoes to fill. During his 11-year tenure, Jonathan Anderson took Loewe from a small luxury brand that few knew how to pronounce to one of the buzziest labels in fashion. He maintained Loewe’s focus on craftsmanship, bringing strong cultural references, from canonical literature and music to hyperrealism. Alongside successful products like the Puzzle bag, Anderson built a Loewe universe. The brand’s marketing is often revered, notably its killer TikTok strategy, memorable campaigns starring the likes of Daniel Craig and Maggie Smith and megawatt pool of young ambassadors, including Drew Starkey, Ayo Edebiri and Taylor Russell.
Loewe sales went from approximately €230 million in 2014, according to Morgan Stanley estimates, to between €1.5 billion and €2 billion in 2024, according to estimates by Bernstein analyst Luca Solca. Lyst ranked Loewe in the top five hottest brands each quarter of 2024 (it ranked first in Q2). And, in its 2024 earnings statement, LVMH said Loewe was “buoyed by growing brand awareness and the bold creativity of its collections”.
McCollough and Hernandez’s Proenza Schouler was better known for its New York cool-girl clients, including Chloë Sevigny and Moda Operandi founder Lauren Santo Domingo. While perhaps less esoteric than Anderson’s approach, their play with silhouette and strong knowledge of footwear and accessories may place them well at Loewe, especially when equipped with the brand’s highly skilled artisans and underpinned by LVMH. (Proenza Schouler counted a number of investors over the years, from Valentino to Andrew Rosen and, most recently, Mudrick Capital Management.) Like Anderson, the designers also know how to navigate the red carpet, having dressed everyone from Brie Larson (2024 Met Gala) to Beyoncé (2015 Grammys) in Proenza for more than 20 years.
‘Jack and Lazaro’s vision and creativity are a perfect match for the codes of the house that we have built,” Loewe chief executive officer Pascale Lepoivre said in Monday’s statement.
“To us, this new chapter is an opportunity to continue to do what we love doing but on a larger scale,” McCollough and Hernandez added. “It allows us to connect with a broader global audience, have the resources to fuel our creativity, and on a personal level, an opportunity to learn and to continue to push ourselves into new and unknown realms, including moving to Paris, which is something we are really looking forward to. It’s surreal to think that we started this journey when we were 21 years old. Now, with the experience we’ve gained and the same energy and curiosity that drove us back then, we’re ready for what will surely be a defining chapter in our lives.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at [email protected].
This article was originally published on Vogue Business.
