All good things must come to an end
They say all good things must come to an end, and Loewe’s latest campaign might just be a testament to that. Freshly dropped this morning (May 19), the Spanish label has tapped longtime muse Josh O’Connor to front its AW25 offering, and it could very well be his last. Though there’s been no official word from the brand, all roads point to Jexit: O’Connor enjoyed a close friendship with former creative director Jonathan Anderson, and now that he’s out of the picture, there seems little reason for the actor to stick around. Also, AW25 was the Irish designer’s swansong collection, so it seems fitting that the OG face of Anderson’s Loewe would come back for one final go.
Shot inside a very expensive-looking mansion with humungous glass windows, the new campaign is based on “cinematic situations that are slightly suspended and eerie”, aka hot actors looking confused in a big house. “Are they rehearsing, or studying their role?” asks the accompanying press release. “Are they academics immersed in the midst of research, or writers delving into an intense period of work?” Lensed by New York photographer Gray Sorrenti, the images also feature house ambassador Yang Mi, plus actors Greta Lee and Stéphane Bak, whose futures are also in question as they too are part of the JAEU (Jonathan Anderson Extended Universe).
O’Connor was originally brought on by Anderson as a fresh-faced 26-year-old, when the designer made him his first-ever menswear ambassador in 2017. Like most of us, Anderson was captivated by O’Connor in God’s Own Country, but, unlike the rest of us, immediately did something about it. “I saw the film God’s Own Country and remember coming out of the cinema feeling incredibly affected. I thought that Josh’s performance had a genuine strength which feels very pure,” said the designer at the time. “As soon as we were thinking about a face for Loewe men’s, Josh was someone who came straight to the front of my mind.”
Since then, the actor has been shot by Steven Meisel reading Madame Bovary for AW18, waving an oyster at Juergen Teller for AW22, and clutching some candlesticks in front of David Sims for SS23. As well as that, Anderson also made O’Connor the face of the sustainable diffusion line Eye/Loewe/Nature, where he explored the waterfalls of Mount Fuji in Japan, and also went full Fear and Loathingcore in a desert in Mexico. Fast forward to 2025, and we get some pensive-looking portraits and an extreme close-up of his crotch.
So, is it finally curtains for O’Cons? Will he be following J Dubs to Dior? Or joining the Proenza lads for another round? Or – more mysterious yet – a secret third brand that none of us know about yet? Don’t worry – when we find out, you’ll be the first to know.
Scroll through the gallery above for O’Connor’s Loewe portfolio through the years, and the gallery below for the entire AW25 pre-collection campaign.