Loewe Marks 180 Years With a Campaign Rooted in Contemporary Art
Loewe has turned its 180th anniversary into a carefully staged meditation on fashion, image-making, and contemporary art. The Spanish house unveiled a campaign on Monday that includes a capsule collection, an anniversary magazine, and an animated film, each element reinforcing the brand’s long-running ties to the art world.
The capsule collection is built around lion motifs, a reference to the fact that “loewe” is the German word for lion. Photographer Talia Chetrit shot the campaign, which features Julia Garner, Sissy Spacek, and artist Kara Walker. In the accompanying video, Walker offers a characteristically dry observation: “For some reason, I think of all the Leos I know. Proud qualities. Generally, I get along with Leos.”
Walker’s presence gives the campaign a particular resonance. The American artist is best known for large-scale installations made from black cut-paper silhouettes, works that probe the histories of Black life and power in the United States with a mix of elegance and unease. Her inclusion also reflects how fluently Loewe has moved between fashion and contemporary art in recent years.
That relationship was especially visible under former creative director Jonathan Anderson, who made artist collaborations a signature of his tenure. Loewe worked with figures including Lynda Benglis and Richard Hawkins during that period, and the brand’s art references became central to its public identity. Anderson left last year to lead Christian Dior.
Now under Jack McColllough and Lazaro Hernandez, Loewe appears intent on keeping that cultural vocabulary intact. The anniversary campaign suggests that the brand sees art not as decoration, but as part of its institutional memory — a way of framing luxury through ideas, authorship, and visual intelligence.
Walker’s own fashion profile has only grown alongside her art-world stature. In 2015, Vogue described her style as “as inspiring as her groundbreaking art,” and she also served on the host committee for the 2025 Met Gala celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
For Loewe, the anniversary campaign is less a retrospective than a statement of continuity: a reminder that, even as creative leadership changes, the brand still wants its identity read through the lens of contemporary art.
