STYLE Edit: Loewe’s Amazona bag, for and inspired by powerful women, is back in the autumn/winter 2021 collection

Oct 4 , 2021

Hong Kong celebrity Sammi Cheng stylishly rocking the era-defining Loewe Amazona. Photos: Loewe

The nappa calfskin bag is inspired by the Greek myth of the Amazons, or warrior women – perhaps the first-ever radical feminists

For the brand’s 175th anniversary, creative director Jonathan Anderson, designer of the Puzzle, has refined the shape and produced the Amazona 19 Square and 28

Some things just get better with age … witness Jonathan Anderson. The Amazona bag has returned for the Loewe autumn/winter 2021 collection, with a refined shape and the full force of the brand’s technical expertise. The question that befell the creative director was how to make the bag even better than before. A daunting task, surely, even for the man who designed the Puzzle back in 2015.

Bringing a new chapter to the Amazona’s storied history, and coinciding with Loewe’s 175th anniversary, the bag is released this season as the Amazona 19 Square and Amazona 28, the numbers denoting – very practically – their width in centimetres.

Loewe’s Amazona bag harks back to a time of long-overdue female empowerment.

Originally designed in 1975, the Amazona will be forever associated with the powerful female. The 1960s and 70s was, of course, the period of second-wave feminism, when women were (finally) having their voices heard – in politics, work, sexuality and the family. The name “Amazona” was inspired by the Greek myth of the Amazons, or warrior women – perhaps the first-ever radical feminists.

And so, importantly, the construction of the Amazona is geared towards the professional woman, the woman on the move, the woman on the go 24 hours in the day who would still push for 25. It is a bag that is fundamentally practical and – in Anderson’s new imagining – enhanced for modern users.

It’s got the removable, adjustable shoulder straps, the large-zipped compartment which can handle today’s smartphones, tablets and whatever else we’re using to tweet on. (Or, perhaps in keeping with the theme of the Loewe newspaper format and literary backdrop, the latest Joan Didion collection.)

Loewe’s Amazona 19 Square – measuring a neat 19cm.

The handbag also has a padlock engraved with the Loewe anagram, and an inside mini-pocket for keys. And there’s even square metal feet on the base, just in case your workspace (or after hours haunt) is on the gritty side.