Two New York Fashion Fixtures Are Taking Over Loewe

Exactly one week after Loewe announced the departure of Jonathan Anderson, the LVMH-owned Spanish luxury brand has appointed a successor. Two of them, to be exact. Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez will be starting at Loewe on April 7, per an early morning press release.

Said McCollough and Hernandez in a statement: “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.”

Added LVMH’s Sidney Toledano, “I have long admired Jack and Lazaro’s work at Proenza Schouler, their eclectic creativity and dedication to craft make them a natural choice to build the next chapter for Loewe.”

The news that the New York fashion fixtures—who met at Parsons and started Proenza Schouler after graduating in 2002—are getting the keys to Loewe has been expected since January, when McCollough and Hernandez exited their brand. At Proenza, the design duo elevated artsy It-girl style on the runway, building a thriving business and winning fistfuls of CFDA Awards as they proved that new American brands could still hack it in the global luxury market. (The duo were affectionately known as the Proenza boys—are they now the Loewe boys?)

At Loewe they will oversee all collections, including menswear, which they never launched at Proenza despite apparent plans to do so this year. They have big round-toe shoes to fill in that department, seeing as Anderson’s menswear for Loewe was consistently interesting, buzzy, and wearable. Another question mark is the plans for Proenza Schouler going forward.

One intriguing factor is the status of the designer Patrik Ervell, who joined Proenza last June as head of menswear design, according to Ervell’s LinkedIn. You might remember Ervell’s aughts-era eponymous line of techy, sartorial menswear, reminiscent almost of an American Dior Homme. Ervell closed up shop in 2017, and then led menswear design at Vince before jumping to COS. Will McCollough and Hernandez bring the seasoned men’s fashion veteran to Loewe? Or will Ervell take over creative director duties at Proenza?

We’ll have to wait and see; Loewe did not announce a timeline for McCollough and Hernandez’s debut collection. Meanwhile, in an interview with Vogue Business, the Proenza—sorry, Loewe—boys made their big new job sound downright straightforward. “To us, this new chapter is an opportunity to continue to do what we love doing but on a larger scale,” McCollough and Hernandez said.