Season Upon Season

A Jonathan Anderson anecdote for designers of all kind

I explore the relationships between art and architecture, fashion and hospitality, and how all of these industries overlap in our cities. I am particularly curious about what city planners and urban designers can learn from this intersection of creative arts. So I think about them and the creative minds behind them a lot.

This morning, I thought about Jonathan Anderson. Today, he arrives at Dior as the new men’s artistic director. It is a major career milestone for him. But what I thought about this morning was not really his arrival at this grand new destination; instead, the journey of getting there. The art of finding one’s own artistic vision. I think about the past 11 years he spent at Loewe. I think about the young, gay Irish boy who arrived to New York when he was 18, then found his way to London, and later started his own design company. It seems like it all happened in the blink of an eye, but the reality is that his sensibility and skills to be the creative director that he is today have been 20 years in the making.

When he shared his departure from Loewe on IG last month, I was struck by his caption, which I reread this morning. He acknowledged the journey's underpinning joy: finding kindred souls, nurturing talents, and surrounding himself with imaginative, skilled, and tenacious minds. And he wrote, “I’ve come to realize that a brand is not built on the first show, or even a first year of shows, it’s built slowly season upon season, year upon year, on what is right for a brand.”

I know he is speaking literally about the Loewe brand; however, my mind loves to draw personal anecdotes from quotes like these, especially when I feel madly ambitious and rather impatient. Throughout my 20s, I’ve been in such a rush to figure myself out, become crystal clear about my “career path,” and have some “dream job” all sorted out. But I’ve come to realize that who I am is not solely defined by my first job, my grad school experience, my second, or third job thereafter. Who I am (as my own brand of a creative urban planner, designer, strategist, whatever you want to call it) is built slowly season upon season, year upon year, on what aligns with my values and vision. How anxiety-calming it is to know then that that journey (yes, of my “career,” but if I’m being honest, really of myself) is gracious and that time is patient. I must constantly remind myself that one sketch, one project, one collaboration will lead to the next, each presenting me with the opportunity to give visible form to my own set of values, which itself strengthens with time. And what a great reminder that one’s journey, whether at an architecture & planning studio or in a fashion house, is about who you bring with you and uplift along the way.

Ethan x