What is happening to Jonathan Anderson?

With the end of the year approaching, so too is fashion month. This means that these days the more or less provisional calendars of the men's fashion weeks in London, Milan, and Paris are being released, but there is a notable absentee: Jonathan Anderson. The next round of men's shows, in fact, does not include JW Anderson or Loewe shows – in both cases, the absence was explained by the fact that both brands will return with Co-Ed shows during the women's fashion weeks, but according to several opinions, there is more to the story. Of course, the decision to merge men's and women's collections has been prevalent this year among brands for reasons that, beyond the more poetic justifications provided, mostly sound economic: concentrating resources into a single media event and avoiding duplicating already exorbitant costs. Nevertheless, while this reasoning might apply to the more independent and smaller JW Anderson, it is harder to imagine that Loewe is trying to save money. Not to mention the fact that, in these weeks, a book has been released commemorating Jonathan Anderson's ten years with the brand, for which a book signing was held on Avenue Montaigne in Paris last Thursday. For many, these absences and the presence of the book are clues pointing to a theory already widely circulated by Puck and Miss Tweed: Jonathan Anderson is preparing for a new creative role for which he will leave Loewe.

Of course, we are talking about speculation, rumors – yet it is hard to imagine Anderson deciding to reduce the number of his shows and disappear from the calendars of Milan, London, and Paris in this way. It is also significant that from 2011 to today, JW Anderson has opted for Co-Ed shows only on four occasions (for FW18, FW19, SS23, and SS24), and Loewe has always kept its shows separate. According to many, Mario Abad in primis, this unusual decision, together with the commemorative book, indicates that Anderson is preparing some sort of farewell show at Loewe to then move towards the next milestone of his career: Dior. If confirmed, the news would be explosive, considering that in such a case, both Kim Jones and Maria Grazia Chiuri would become free agents ready to step into one of the many brands promised by the recent merry-go-round of nominations and strategic moves, which 2025 should bring. We emphasize once again that these are speculations, also because according to gossip, even after Fendi's centenary show (for which the brand will also be absent from the men's calendar), a creative direction change should arrive at the brand – projecting a potential changing of the guard across all major LVMH brands starting with Louis Vuitton and Celine. Miss Tweed, who spoke about Anderson at Dior, had indeed also mentioned a potential entry of Pierpaolo Piccioli at Fendi.

However, it is not clear where these changes leave JW Anderson, Anderson's eponymous brand, which recently collaborated with Harry Styles' brand, exploring the world of beauty, and signed the merch for Luca Guadagnino's new film, Queer. The brand's future should not be in danger since, as of 2013, LVMH holds a minority stake that perhaps (this too is speculation) is contractually tied to Anderson's work with the group's other mega-brands – and in any case, JW Anderson belongs to a category of accessible luxury that should benefit from the crisis of the major ultra-luxury brands, whose sky-high prices are freezing sales. The most likely hypothesis, therefore, is that the choice to unify the shows serves to concentrate resources and energies – and considering how intense Anderson's year has been, the designer's choice is perhaps understandable. And if the rumors about Dior are true, also preferable.