Loewe collaborates with Studio Ghibli

Loewe has launched a whimsical collection in collaboration with Japanese film studio Studio Ghibli featuring characters and fantasy landscapes from the cult classic film, My Neighbor Totoro.

The Spanish fashion house, headed up by creative director Jonathan Anderson, explains that the collaboration was born out of “mutual love of craft and artisanal techniques, expressed in our respective languages”.

The collection celebrates the poetry and immediacy of My Neighbor Totoro and the story of Mei and Satsuki’s friendship with the magical Totoro and his cohorts, the mischievous dust bunnies, who can’t be seen by adults but only by the children who love them.

“The process of collaborating with Studio Ghibli, which is not only the studio that brought Totoro to life, but also features Totoro as its mascot, has been both a privilege and a creative encounter,” added Anderson in the press release. “The connection between Loewe and My Neighbor Totoro, on the other hand, is the mutual connection with nature, the world outdoors and a sense of perpetual invention. The importance of nature to humankind is on everybody’s mind in these difficult times. Finding ways to live in harmony with the environment is a shared quest.”

The characters and landscapes they inhabit in the film have been interpreted as prints, all-over prints, jacquard intarsia and leather marquetry, as well as hand-painted motifs and transformed into pom-poms. These designs feature on T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, jumpers, culottes, and biker jackets.

The collection also has a selection of Loewe’s luxe leather accessories, including calfskin satchels, wallets, bucket bags, and its signature Puzzle style adorned with more characters from the film.

Anderson added: “I find the way that we used the characters on leather accessories particularly charming, as we worked with our very own leather marquetry, or intarsia technique. The Totoro characters are featured in intarsia on the surface of iconic Loewe bags such as the Puzzle, the Balloon and the Hammock, as well as on small leather accessories such as pouches, cases and wallets.”

To showcase the limited-edition capsule collection, photographer Gray Sorrenti captured models in the woods as they hide, seek and find to share the mood of discovery and connection with nature, a key message that comes from the My Neighbor Totoro film.

Loewe x My Neighbor Totoro collection is available now.

Images: courtesy of Loewe