‘I never went into the job to be famous’ – Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson on creating a fashion revolution

At the helm of both Loewe and his eponymous line, Derry fashion designer Jonathan Anderson has become a multi-billion euro success story, dressing the likes of Rihanna, Beyoncé and Harry Styles as he did so. But he prefers to shun the spotlight, saying he’s focused on craft not celebrity

Fashion designer Jonathan Anderson

Ed Cumming
© Telegraph.co.uk

Jonathan Anderson is one of the world’s most important fashion designers, but you might not think it to look at him. He has sandy hair and a boyish face. He carries himself as though he feels shy of being tall and broad, amid the sylphs of his industry. He speaks quickly and has a restlessness that means he often folds his hands together as he explains things.

Despite the celebrities who flock to his catwalks — and the announcement he will be an honorary chair of fashion’s glitziest party, the 2024 Met Gala — he is not a social fixture. He has no glamorous female muses, no Isabella Blows or Daphne Guinnesses in the wings. He is not personally ostentatious. He says wearing his own clothes is like eating food you have cooked for someone else. You might mistake him for a graduate student with firm views on Samuel Beckett, rather than the ruler of a billion-euro empire of raiment.