, 1905
Early years Loewe was founded in 1846 in
Madrid by a group of Spanish leather craftsmen, and the brand originated in 1876 when Enrique Loewe y Roessberg, a German merchant of
Hessian origin, joined the group. In 1905,
Alfonso XIII granted Enrique Loewe y Hinton, a descendant of the original brand founder, the title of
Purveyor to the Royal Court. His wife,
Queen Victoria Eugenie, frequently visited the store on Príncipe de Madrid street. By the 1970s, Loewe was expanding into perfumes and fashion with the creation of the Loewe anagram logo, designed by Spanish painter Vicente Vela.
Urvois Spinola Group, 1984–1996 In 1984, Louis Urvois and Gian Luca Spinola acquired the majority of shares in Loewe.
Giorgio Armani and
Laura Biagiotti subsequently designed Loewe's womenswear collections. In 1986,
LVMH bought the rights to Loewe's international distribution. By 1997,
Narciso Rodriguez joined the company as new creative director and the brand had its first Paris runway presentation at LVMH headquarters in the fall/winter 1998 season. Both
José Enrique Oña Selfa (2000) and
Stuart Vevers (2008–2013) followed. During Vever's tenure, Loewe scaled back fashion to concentrate on handbags, leather apparel and a substantial gift business based on leather picture frames and leather boxes. exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art Members of the
Spanish royal family, including
Queen Sofía and
Queen Letizia, have been seen several times wearing Loewe handbags. From 2013 to 2025,
Jonathan Anderson served as Loewe's
creative director. According to a 2025
New Yorker article on his tenure, Loewe became "both a darling among critics and a commercial dynamo" under Anderson. Anderson's first ready-to-wear collections for Loewe were presented in 2014. Since 2014, Loewe's headquarters – including the design team, which had previously been based in Madrid – has been located on
Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris. The company remains based in Spain. Manufacture, particularly of leather goods, takes place in Barcelona and
Getafe, near Madrid. In 2019 lawsuit brought to the
Tribunal de commerce de Paris, Loewe invoked a non-compete case related to its employment of designer Bruno Sialelli who became artistic director at
Lanvin at a time when he was still bound by commitments linked to his prior position. As part of an out-of-court settlement in 2020, Loewe and Lanvin reached an agreement. Following high-profile collaborations, including designing several custom performance looks for American singer
Beyoncé's
Renaissance World Tour and strong online and physical campaign performance in China, Loewe topped the Lyst's Hottest Brand Index for the first time in the second quarter of 2023, a position previously held by Prada. After Anderson's departure, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez were appointed as creative directors in 2025, also located in Paris. ==Locations==