As announced last night (March 23), Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have officially been appointed Loewe’s new creative directors. Today’s news follows last week’s announcement that the Spanish brand’s former creative director Jonathan Anderson would be stepping down after 11 years.
Taking effect from April 7, the design duo will be responsible for the creative direction of womenswear, menswear, leather goods and accessories. “We are incredibly honoured to join Loewe, a House whose values and mission align closely with our own. 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,” said McCollough and Hernandez in a statement released by the brand.
The news also follows the January announcement that the designers would be leaving their roles at New York label Proenza Schouler – which they founded in 2002. Though no longer designers at the house, they remain on the board and will continue to be shareholders.
The pair met while studying at Parsons, making the unusual choice to join forces and collaborate on their graduate collection, which they named after their mother’s maiden names, ‘Proenza Schouler’. The entire collection was bought by Barneys New York and two years later, they were awarded the CFDA Vogue fashion fund. Three years after that, they picked up the award for womenswear designer of the year. “[Proenza Schouler] is two worlds coming together,” they said in an early interview. “If either of us had gone independently in our own direction without having the other side... it gives it the subversive twist that we love. So the people that don’t get it, that’s fine, and the cool girls do get it, and buy it!”
They weren’t wrong about the cool girls. Over the course of the past two decades, the pair have amassed a number of famous fans. Pamela Anderson, Ayo Edibiri, Rachel Sennott, Paloma Elsesser, Bella Hadid and Chloë Sevigny have all either attended shows, walked in them or fronted campaigns. After securing their legacy by spending the past 22 years growing Proenza Schouler into a NYFW heavyweight, their appointment at Loewe marks an exciting and refreshing new chapter for the designers.