JW Anderson

JW Anderson was founded in 2008 in London by Jonathan Anderson, a Northern Irish designer who had recently graduated from the London College of Fashion. The label launched with menswear and added womenswear in 2010; the early collections were notable for an unabashed gender fluidity in cut and fabric that, in retrospect, helped accelerate the contemporary unisex-fashion conversation by several years. The JW Anderson vocabulary settled around several distinguishing practices: deconstructed knitwear, intentional pattern asymmetry (the Twister jumper, the bumper bag), the recurring use of trompe-l'œil prints, and a sustained engagement with craft and ceramic traditions (the brand co-organizes the Loewe Craft Prize and frequently collaborates with potters). Anderson concurrently held the creative director role at Loewe from 2013 to 2024 — eleven of the most consequential years in that house's recent history. In 2024 Anderson left Loewe to take over Dior (replacing both Maria Grazia Chiuri for women's and Kim Jones for men's, an unusually unified appointment). He continues to run his namesake brand from London. JW Anderson is independent — Anderson is the sole creative director and majority owner. Few designers of his generation have run two major design directorships concurrently for over a decade — and few have built such a coherent personal brand alongside an even more visible institutional role.