Loewe Names Stuart Vevers Creative Director

From Belgium to Brit at Loewe, where the Spanish leather and luxury label has appointed Stuart Vevers as its new creative director.

British-born Vevers replaces José Enriqué Ona Selfa, a Belgium of Spanish origin who held the position for six years.

The new creative director joins Loewe from Mulberry, where he had a strikingly successful rein, highlighting by him nabbing the Fashion Accessories Designer of the Year award from the British Fashion Council in 2006.

"Stuart Vevers will work exclusively for Loewe starting January 2008, and will be based in Madrid where the brand has its studio and workshops," confirmed a press release from LVMH Moet Hennessy Vuitton, the giant French luxury company that owns Loewe.

"Stuart creative talent and wealth of experience are perfectly suited to enhance the current development of Loewe, a house whose legitimacy as luxury accessories specialist is rooted in over 160 years of leather goods craftsmanship," added LVMH, without any comment from Vevers.
A graduate of the University of Westminster, Vevers did stints with Bottega Veneta and Givenchy, an LVMH-owned brand.

The designer will be doubly familiar with the LVMH group, since he joined Louis Vuitton in 2002 to cerate the runway bags shown by creative director Marc Jacobs on LV runways, before leaving after six seasons to become Design Director for Mulberry.

Ona Selfa's last collection for Loewe will be in Paris this October. Vevers will make his debut in March 2008.

This appointment is the latest attempt to kick life into a number of underperforming brands in their fashion portfolio, such as Kenzo and Celine.
The choice of Vevers means Loewe will continue its emphasis on leather goods, which represent 80% of sales, but with an eye to injecting an element of cool into the label, something entirely missing under Ona Selfa.

Loewe boasts a global chain of some 120 stores around, including around 40 boutiques in Japan and a dozen in China.

Vevers joins Loewe with an excellent reputation. His ideas at Loewe, such as the much sought after polished Fitzrovia, won that brand a growing following. His tag-team efforts with designers like Luella Bartley and Giles Deacon brought heat and panache to the previously traditional label.

One thing's for sure, Mulberry will not have an easy job replacing Stuart Vevers.

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