Amazona

Designed by Italian-born Loewe collaborator Dario Rossi and launched in 1975, the Amazona takes its name from the warrior women of Greek mythology. It arrived as Spain was opening up economically and more women were entering the workforce, and Rossi conceived it explicitly as a softened alternative to the rigid businessman's briefcase: structured enough to look purposeful, but built without a rigid base so it could slouch and mold to the body over time. The earliest Amazonas were made in gold suede rather than the smooth calfskin most associated with the bag today, finished with a twisted Toron handle, reinforced corners, and a working mini padlock and key that doubled as both an anti-theft device and a signature identifier.

The Amazona became one of Loewe's defining silhouettes through the late 20th century, worn by style figures including Kate Moss, but it drifted out of the active lineup as the house's design language shifted in the 2000s and early 2010s under successive creative directors. Loewe brought it back for its Fall/Winter 2021 runway in two new proportions, the compact Amazona 19 Square and the larger Amazona 28, later adding the in-between Amazona 23. In 2026, to mark Loewe's 180th anniversary, incoming co-creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez reinterpreted the style again as the 'Amazona 180,' softening its silhouette while preserving the padlock and Toron handle that have anchored the design for fifty years -- making it the house's oldest continuously referenced bag shape.

The Amazona's cultural footprint stretches across two distinct eras. In its original run it became closely associated with a generation of 1970s and '80s working women who wanted a structured bag that didn't look like a briefcase, and it was carried by style figures including Kate Moss during Loewe's broader visibility push. Decades later, its 2021 revival was framed explicitly around nostalgia: fashion press described it as the bag once reached for by 'iconic It girls,' tying the relaunch to the same 2000s-and-'90s revival wave that brought back other archive shapes across the industry.

Because the Amazona predates Jonathan Anderson's tenure by nearly four decades, it occupies a different niche than Anderson-era hits like the Puzzle or Hammock: it's Loewe's heritage flex rather than its hype item. Its selection as the face of the house's 180th-anniversary campaign in 2026 -- the bag chosen to represent Loewe's full history in a single object -- underscores that positioning, and has renewed interest among collectors who prize archival, house-history pieces over trend-driven ones.