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Fashion designer Jonathan Anderson on his passion for ceramics


ByCrafts magazine

21 February 2018

The creative director of LOEWE and founder of his eponymous fashion brand reveals the makers who inspire him


Crafts magazine

21 February 2018

  • Profile
  • Crafts magazine
  • Fashion
  • Ceramics

  • Jonathan Anderson. Image: Courtesy LOEWE FOUNDATION

The world renowned fashion designer Jonathan Anderson founded his brand, JW Anderson, in 2008. In 2013, he was appointed as creative director of the Spanish design house LOEWE, and in 2016 launched the LOEWE Craft Prize, which was first awarded to wood turner Ernst Gamperl in 2017.

In this interview, he told Crafts magazine about his love for craft, his collection of ceramics by such names as Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, and why he set up the craft prize.

How did you get into designing clothes?

Well, I actually first went to drama school, but I ended up kind of falling into it by designing windows for Prada. It was from there that I became obsessed with design and wanting to work in fashion.

Did you grow up in a making household?

I didn’t grow up in anything to do with fashion, but my grandfather was a textile designer for print so it kind of rubbed off. I grew up in Northern Ireland in Derry and I used to go to the Ulster Museum a lot. It has a very good craft section, and a great modern British collection. But I think also going to the factory to see fabric being printed with my grandfather really got me into this idea of making and the art of making. Ireland is one of those places that is very craft oriented, so it’s almost like it’s built into you.

Where do you go to uncover new makers? Do you have any favourite galleries or even cities?

Anywhere I go for work – I went to South Korea recently, for instance – I like to try and buy something, and to find galleries that specialise in craft. I’ve become quite addicted to finding new things, so I suppose it’s sort of an ongoing process. And actually by doing this prize with LOEWE, it becomes an amazing way of seeing everything that’s happening globally. I suppose my biggest thing is probably ceramics – they just seem to be something I always stumble across. My grandfather collected early British delftware. I think there’s a tactile quality. There’s something about it that I can’t really explain, something so physical.


Black and White Vessel by John Ward. Photo: Michael Harvey, courtesy Oxford Ceramics

Do you use the ceramics you buy, or prefer to display them?

Oh, I like to use them. There’s nothing more exciting than putting flowers into something you’re not meant to. In the beginning I was collecting John Ward, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper. With Rie, I use the cups, her domestic ware, because I think that’s the point. If something was made for a purpose then you should use it. It shouldn’t be kept behind glass.

Is there anything that unites the artists you collect? Have any shared characteristics emerged?

Well, I always like something to be a kind of discovery, or a rediscovery. So recently in Miami [see Crafts magazine, issue no. 270] I showed work by Richard Smith, who I think might be one of the most incredible painters in Britain. I sometimes feel what he has achieved is rather overlooked. But then the show came to be about how things relate to shadow and light.

I included the work of Sara Flynn too – I just love her ceramics. I think she’s one of the most talented ceramicists. Her work is very physical. I also used it in a show I did at the Hepworth Wakefield. It’s why I love John Ward’s ceramics too, they seem to reflect nature, in the same way that Sara’s have this body-like feel to them. One of my all-time favourite ceramists is Magdalene Odundo, because there is that physicality. To me, it makes what she does more powerful than any other form of art.


  • Hans Coper pots from the Crafts Council Collection. Photo: Geremy Butler, 1972
Visit Crafts Council collection

You mentioned the annual craft prize, which you’ve founded with the LOEWE Foundation in 2016. What was the inspiration behind that move?

When I joined LOEWE in 2013 I had always wanted to do this prize. Why? I collected craft, I go to craft shows, craft galleries – it is an obsession of mine. So when I joined I knew, of course, I was becoming the creative director, but I didn’t want to always have to talk about myself. I wanted to be able to celebrate the art of craft, the idea of making with one’s hands, but also to give it the exposure that I truly think it deserves.

I think sometimes contemporary art overshadows what craftspeople do, but there are things going on in craft that are incredibly interesting, and craft, just as much as art, is a way to reflect on where we are today.

What advice would you give to the generation of makers just starting out?

Let your hands be the brain.


This article first appeared in Crafts magazine

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