This Loewe Bag Is a Fashion-Person Favourite—I Took One for a Spin to See If It Deserves the Hype
The first memory I have of the Loewe Puzzle bag will stay with me forever. I was a fresh university graduate who, at the tender age of 20, had begun her first-ever, full-time, "big girl" job at one of Sydney's most prestigious PR firms. The Spanish luxury brand, which was then helmed by fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, was one of the agency’s clients.
When the time came to present the latest range to the Australian market, I watched as the stark white walls and bright pink floors of the showroom transformed into a temporary Casa Loewe—the term coined by the brand to describe their flagship boutiques. There, amid the feathered headpieces, baroque-inspired heels and bustle-like drop waist dresses of the spring/summer 2020 collection, I saw it—the Loewe Puzzle bag perched on a marble-esque plinth in all its glory.
Style Notes: The aforementioned showing featuring the first ever Puzzle bag I laid eyes on in person.
You see, the Loewe Puzzle bag was still a relatively novel design, but nonetheless had veritably reached cult status to the point where every fashion lover—even the most nascent ones—had made this the object of their affections. The silhouette introduced the next era for the crafts-focused heritage house. Under the creative control of the Northern Irish visionary, Anderson ushered in a new era for the brand. This direction cemented itself in his inaugural spring/summer 2015 collection when Loewe’s first-ever iteration of the Puzzle bag—and notably, the first-ever new Loewe bag for the brand since the 1980s—hit the runway.
Style Notes: The first-ever Loewe Puzzle bag design on the spring/summer 2015 runway.
The initial iterations were a patchwork of suede, leather and snake-effect cutouts that were pieced together like a jigsaw. (Hence the name.) A lot has changed in the decade since the Loewe Puzzle bag made its debut. The brand’s artistic reins have now been handed to Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez and Anderson is now at Dior, but the Puzzle bag nevertheless remains one of the most popular designer handbags of all time.
This is by no means a small feat, especially when its desirability is on par with the Hermés Birkin, which was created in 1971, or the Prada Galleria, conceived in 2007. So, when the time came to review the Puzzle bag to understand why the style has such a rich legacy, I jumped at the chance to finally take home (at least for a little while) a bag that’s sat at the top of my wish list for five years straight.
