Loewe’s Anagram looks like an abstract knot — but it’s rooted in the craft of marking leather.

Loewe’s emblem is the “Anagram”: four interlocking, mirrored “L”s arranged into a rounded knot or rosette, designed by Vicente Vela in 1970. Its inspiration is beautifully on-brand — the branding irons used to mark leather and cattle hides — tying the mark straight to the house’s craft (it’s nicknamed “el cangrejo,” the crab). Vela was an artist and friend of the Loewe family who collaborated with the house for some forty years, not a jobbing graphic designer, which is part of the mark’s quiet, artful character.

The house is genuinely old: founded in 1846 as a small leather workshop in Madrid, it took its German-sounding name when the merchant Enrique Loewe Roessberg joined in 1872 (Löwe means “lion”). It’s been owned by LVMH since 1996, and its modern renaissance came under Jonathan Anderson (creative director from 2013), who redrew the Anagram and, with graphic studio M/M (Paris), delivered a 2014 rebrand — a clean, black-and-white typographic system whose wordmark was inspired by Berthold Wolpe’s 1937 typeface “Pegasus” (chosen because Wolpe’s German-to-Britain émigré path echoed Enrique Loewe’s German-to-Spain story). One more note: it’s pronounced roughly “loh-EH-veh.”

Loewe’s palette is quiet — leather and ink. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

The identity is deliberately understated: a black Anagram and wordmark on white (the 2014 M/M system is pointedly typographic and monochrome), warmed by the natural tan and brown leather tones of the house’s craft. Loewe publishes no official brand hex, so treat these as approximate. The restraint is the point — a leather house lets the material’s own colours (and the craft) carry the warmth, while the mark stays clean and quiet, in keeping with its art-and-craft positioning.

The lesson is a palette drawn from the material and a mark drawn from the craft. Loewe’s tans and browns are simply the colours of leather; its Anagram comes from the branding iron that marks it — so both the palette and the logo are honest expressions of what the house actually makes. For designers, it’s a reminder that the most authentic identity often comes straight from the product and its making: use the material’s natural tones, let the technique inspire the mark, and keep everything else quiet. Craft-led restraint reads as genuine luxury precisely because it isn’t shouting.

The wordmark is a warm, characterful serif — with an émigré’s story.

Loewe’s 2014 wordmark is a bespoke serif inspired by Berthold Wolpe’s 1937 “Pegasus,” discovered by M/M (Paris) in the V&A archive — a warm, humanist face with real character. The choice carries meaning: Wolpe was a German émigré to Britain, mirroring the German-born Enrique Loewe’s move to Spain, so the type quietly encodes the house’s cross-cultural heritage. It’s a lovely example of type as narrative — a serif chosen not just for how it looks but for a biographical rhyme with the brand’s own story. Paired with the branding-iron Anagram, the identity is craft and heritage all the way down.

Loewe turned a heritage leather house into one of fashion’s most admired art-and-craft brands.

Loewe’s modern story is a craft renaissance. Under Jonathan Anderson, the 175-year-old Spanish leather house became one of fashion’s most intellectually admired brands — an art-and-craft sensibility (the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize, artist collaborations, the origami-like Puzzle bag of 2015) built on genuine leather expertise. The identity supported it perfectly: a clean typographic system, the branding-iron Anagram enlarged into a monogram, a wordmark with a heritage backstory. Old craft, new relevance — without ever betraying the house’s roots.

For designers, Loewe is a lesson in modernising a heritage brand through its own authenticity. Rather than paper over its 1846 leather origins, Loewe leaned into them — the Anagram from a branding iron, the tans of leather, a wordmark tied to an émigré’s type — and let a strong contemporary graphic system (M/M Paris) and a craft-obsessed creative director (Anderson) make that heritage feel current and desirable. The takeaways: mine your real craft for the logo and palette; use type that carries the brand’s true story; and remember that authenticity, presented with contemporary rigour, is the surest route to a heritage brand’s revival. Loewe proves quiet, honest craft can be the most modern luxury of all.

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