Derry designer named among TIME’s 100 Most Infl uential People of 2024

Jonathan Anderson, a fashion designer from Co Derry, has been named in the Innovators category for TIME’s 100 Most Infl uential People of 2024.

The Creative Director and founder of JW Anderson and the Creative Director of Loewe, Anderson was profi led by Oscarnominated lmmaker Luca Guadagnino for TIME’s annual feature.

“What I love about Jonathan Anderson is that he is grounded, and he has an in‐ nate understanding of how fashion and human behavior intertwine,” Guadagnino wrote.

“Jonathan is one of the most intelligent, empathetic, and curious people I know, but he also has a wonderful sense of hu‐ mor, and a capacity not to take himself too seriously.

“Costume design in particular takes a great deal of humanity and wisdom, and working with him in the past has helped me better understand the characters whose stories we were telling. His work is always ahead of the curve.

“What he does at JW Anderson and Loewe is fashion that belongs to us all, now and in the future.”

On Instagram, Anderson thanked TIME for the "incredible honour" and extended a "massive thank you" to Guadagnino for his "kind words."

Who is Jonathan Anderson?

Anderson is a native of Magherafelt in Co Derry where he grew up with three siblings. His mother Heather Buckley was a teacher, while his father Willie Anderson was a renowned Irish rugby player and coach.

In 2005, Anderson graduated from the London College of Fashion after a stint in Washington, DC where he studied acting, followed by a period in Dublin where he worked at Brown Thomas. In 2008, he founded his fashion label JW Anderson and in 2013, the luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hen‐ nessy (LVMH) took a minority stake in the label. That same year, he was made the Creative Director for Loewe.

In 2019, Anderson told the Irish Exam‐ iner that he attributes his ability to sell a collection’s narrative, his storytelling, to his Irishness, calling literature the coun‐ try’s greatest export. He shares his mother’s love of Seamus Heaney, one of whose readings he was taken to as a lit‐

tle boy.

Anderson is no stranger to dressing the stars with Cate Blanchett, Daisy Edgar- Jones, and Zendaya among his fans, ac‐ cording to The Hollywood Reporter. In February 2023, superstar Rihanna donned a red leather corset designed by

Loewe , where Anderson is the creative director, during her spectacular Super Bowl LVII halftime show performance, which was watched by more than an es‐ timated 28.5 million people.

"I’m so excited to have been part of this unforgettable moment,” Anderson said at the time.

“Rihanna is a true icon, and working with her to bring these stage looks to life feels like a wild, wonderful dream.” View this post on Instagram

A post shared by LOEWE (@loewe) Later in 2023, Loewe announced that Anderson had created a series of looks for Grammy winner Beyoncé to wear on her smash hit Renaissance World Tour. The looks were "inspired by the escapist joy of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album Renaissance," Loewe said.

More recently, Anderson served as cos‐ tume designer for the buzzy new lm "Challengers," directed by Guadagnino and starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist.

The lm is set to arrive in theaters on April 26 after it was delayed due to last year's writers' strikes.