LOEWE’s “Crafted World” exhibition has landed in Tokyo, marking its second stop after its debut in Shanghai. Installed just across from Harajuku Station, the exhibition opens March 29 and runs through May 11 — a sprawling, multi-sensory journey through the Spanish house’s history, design language, and decades-deep obsession with craft.
Designed with OMA/AMO, the exhibition sprawls across 1,300 square meters, offering visitors a sequence of immersive rooms that chart LOEWE’s evolution from an 1846 leather-making collective in Madrid to a major player on the global fashion stage. The Tokyo edition carries additional weight: Japan was the first country LOEWE expanded into outside Europe, with its 1973 launch at Nihombashi Mitsukoshi marking the beginning of a longstanding cultural dialogue.
“Crafted World” unfolds like a walk-through archive-meets-atelier. One room restages the LOEWE workshop, tracing the meticulous process of building the house’s iconic bags — from leather selection to hand assembly. Another is devoted to “Welcome to Spain,” a series of vignettes that link LOEWE’s design cues back to the Spanish coast, countryside, and craft traditions that continue to inform collections today.
There’s a stop-off at the house’s collaborations: past projects with Studio Ghibli, British artist Anthea Hamilton, and Kyoto ceramicists Suna Fujita are all given space. A supersized version of the Howl’s Moving Castle bag (originally introduced in LOEWE’s 2023 Ghibli capsule) anchors “The Castle Room” — a clever patchwork of shapes and details pulled from other LOEWE bags, stitched together like fantasy architecture.
Creative director Jonathan Anderson’s imprint is especially felt in “Fashion Without Limits.” On display: 54 runway looks — men’s and women’s — presented alongside contemporary artworks from the LOEWE collection. The installation makes clear Anderson’s ability to fuse bold form, subversive materiality, and an exacting sense of craft. In one corner, textile mobiles and sculptural ceramics echo silhouettes from recent collections; in another, video projections bring the runway to life.
Elsewhere, the exhibit zooms out — widening the lens to show the breadth of LOEWE’s ongoing craft collaborations. Visitors will find pieces from the annual LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize, plus stories like that of the Onishi family, who have been making iron Kama tea kettles in Kyoto for over four centuries. There’s also a room filled with installations and works by Japanese artisans, including Moe Watanabe and Genta Ishizuka.
As a finale, “Unexpected Dialogues” offers a carousel of five immersive rooms — each one anchored by a different artistic collaboration. From the re-creation of Ken Price’s studio to a suspended flower garden assembled with Tokyo-based edenworks, these installations lean playful, unexpected, and emotionally charged.
The entire experience is free, though visitors must reserve in advance. And while there’s a dedicated gift shop for takeaways, the real souvenir might be the way the exhibition slows you down — inviting you to reconsider what it means to make something with your hands.
