You can now revisit some of your favourite Spirited Away characters and wear them too (All photos: Loewe)
Just as how director Hayao Miyazaki has whisked us to fantasyland by conjuring up phantasmagoric yet realistic worlds that eerily reflect our own, Loewe has commanded the same transportive effect in its most recent capsule collection. In this second collaboration between the Japanese animation powerhouse and Spanish luxury fashion stalwart, crafted goods are woven with a playful attitude while honouring the characters you love from the Best Animated Feature winner.
Yubaba's servants (more like spies, really) Fly-Bird and Susuwatari soot sprites (black, fuzzy creatures that extend their wiry limbs to accomplish tasks like moving coals) dominate Loewe's latest ready-to-wear, blankets, scarves and leather as well as canvas bags including the Amazona, Puzzle, Hammock and Flamenco. In other iterations, these endearing creatures from the 2002 film manifested as cutesy pompoms and tufty bags.
Motifs of Spirited Away's main protagonist Chihiro have been emblazoned onto breezy t-shirts, cotton blanket, and the Amazona 28 bag in Napa calfskin together with images of Haku in his majestic dragon form. Elswhere, everyone's favourite gliding black shroud Kaonashi or “No-Face” appears on slippers in embroidered kappa, which are impossible to be ignored and even more imposible for your eyes to pull away.
While Miyazaki’s elaborate landscapes have been turned into all-over prints, characters and figures are playfully rendered as jacquard, print, appliqué patch, leather marquetry or embroidery. The tactility and three-dimensional form of these characters came to life via a classic Japanese technique known as ‘boro’, which consists of mended and indigo-dyed scraps that are patched together. This also created the intarsia of Kasuri textiles and Anagram jacquard canvas on both ready-to-wear and bags.
image002.png
Highlighting Ghibli’s masterful approach to impressionistic landscape awashed in lush colours, Loewe’s garments — be it t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, cardigans, oversized jumpers, culottes and denim trousers — take after loose and relaxed silhouettes to maximise the effect of the surface treatment.
To soar through an intricately crafted universe fashioned by Ghibli is to be enchanted. In the same way Miyazaki invites us into a world that elevates the ordinary confines of everyday life into sumptuous surprises, Loewe beckons style mavens to partake in its journey of magical meditations.
For the full collection, see here.
