A Brief History of Loewe’s ‘It’ Bag, The Puzzle Bag
Jonathan Anderson’s tenure as creative director of Loewe has included many milestones and highly acclaimed designs, most recently winning Designer of the Year in 2023 at the Fashion Awards and creating the costumes for the upcoming film “Challengers.”
One of Anderson’s first designs as Loewe creative director, a role he’s had since 2013, was the debut of his coveted Puzzle Bag, which has become one of the design house’s signature handbags and has reached “It” bag status thanks to celebrities and influencers regularly wearing the style and its many iterations for nearly a decade.
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Anderson first debuted the Puzzle Bag during Loewe’s spring 2015 men’s ready-to-wear collection, Anderson’s first collection as creative director. In the collection, the Puzzle Bag was debuted as a duffel bag, and was later turned into a crossbody and released for purchase in 2015.
In addition to the style being one of Anderson’s first creations under his role, the Puzzle Bag was also the first new bag shape Loewe had introduced since the 1980s.
“I set out to find a new way of building a bag, fundamentally questioning its structure,” Anderson said in a statement in 2015. “It was about deconstructing a conventional bag to create a flat object with a tridimensional function.”
This deconstructive quality is at the core of the Loewe Puzzle Bag’s construction. Handmade in Madrid, the cuboid shaped bag is made with nine geometric fragments of leather and takes roughly nine hours to create. The style, first introduced in two sizes, can be worn as a shoulder bag, crossbody, with a top handle or as a clutch.
In the years since its release, the Loewe Puzzle Bag has been offered in virtually all colors of the rainbow and a range of materials, such as suede, calfskin, raffia, cotton jacquard and others. Loewe has also collaborated with artists for limited-edition versions of the Puzzle Bag, including with Joe Brainard and Ken Price, and with animation company Studio Ghibli and Japanese ceramic studio Suna Fujita, among others.
The style has been worn by numerous celebrities over the years like Kate Bosworth, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lawrence, Naomi Campbell, Hari Nef and many others.
Last year, Loewe introduced a new version of the Puzzle Bag in its spring 2024 ready-to-wear collection — the Puzzle Tote. The new style takes inspiration from the geometric shape of the original Puzzle Bag and from the archival Loewe Origami bag. The style’s construction also allows it to lay flat to make it easier for travel.
The timeless, yet trendy style hasn’t lost its luster in its decade on the market, and will surely continue to reign as one of today’s coveted “It” bags.
Launch Gallery: A Look at the History of the Loewe Puzzle Bag
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