ANDERSON
Jonathan

• 1. Career

Jonathan Anderson is an Irish fashion designer and the founder of JW Anderson. Anderson is known for his eponymous label and having served as the creative director of Spanish luxury house Loewe.

Career

Anderson began his career working as a visual merchandiser for Prada, working for Manuela Pavesi. He launched his own menswear collection shortly after in 2008. His first collection under the JW Anderson label received critical acclaim. In 2010, Anderson received sponsorship from the British Fashion Council's Newton committee and subsequently produced his first catwalk collection at London Fashion Week.

The rising success of his JW Anderson label allowed him to secure a second NewGen sponsorship and led to a collaboration with high-street retailer Topshop in 2012. The collaboration was a collection of limited-edition items, known as the JW Anderson x Topshop collection. It featured clothing and accessories ranging from mini-kilts and paisley prints, to Halloween motifs and included a range of stationery, iPhone cases and Rubik cubes. The collection sold out within hours of it launching. Anderson and Topshop scheduled another collaboration to launch a year later, with the release coming in February 2013.

Later that year, Donatella Versace enlisted him to replace Christopher Kane at Versace's diffusion line Versus, where he showcased his first collection in June at New York's Lexington Armoury. In September 2013, LVMH took a minority stake in JW Anderson and named Anderson as the new creative director for Spanish luxury house LOEWE. By 2019, he created 18 different collections each year — six for his own label, 10 for Loewe and two for his ongoing collaborations with Uniqlo. In 2019, he became a member of the board of trustees at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In February 2023, Anderson designed singer Rihanna's red outfit, which she used to announce her second pregnancy during her half-time Super Bowl performance. That same year Anderson served as costume designer for Luca Guadagnino's upcoming film Queer. Anderson had previously worked with Guadagnino in 2022, during the production of his film Challengers.