Beloved Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli has been experiencing a mini renaissance lately. For example, Netflix landed the high-profile coup of securing the majority of the studio’s films for global streaming last February.
The latest milestone is Spanish maison Loewe’s new collaboration with Studio Ghibli, which focuses on one specific film in the studio’s repertoire: My Neighbor Totoro.
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The Loewe x My Neighbor Totoro capsule collection, which drops January 7 at Loewe stores, comprises more than 60 bags, accessories and ready-to-wear pieces, all featuring adorable motifs from the 1988 film.
The campaign for the Loewe x My Neighbor Totoro collection sets the models in similar, forest-like settings seen in the classic animated film.
For the uninitiated, the animated film is set in rural Japan, centred around two girls and their budding friendship with Totoro (a gentle, bear-like creature) and other earthy guardians of the natural world.
Since its inception more than 30 years ago, My Neighbor Totoro has become arguably Studio Ghibli’s most popular work (read: Totoro is their mascot) for its whimsical, heart-warming and unflinching embrace of one’s inner child and subtle messages of environmentalism – all long-running themes in Ghibli films.
The Loewe x My Neighbor Totoro collection is an ode to embracing one’s inner child and being at ease with nature.
Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson is a big Studio Ghibli fan. “There is a natural longing for heartwarming feelings right now. When I think of a movie that affords me that kind of solace, speaking just as directly to a child as it does to an adult, that movie is My Neighbor Totoro,” he says.
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“Anyone who has seen Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 masterpiece cannot possibly forget it. 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, is truly touching… It is a product of craft in the form of an animated movie.”
The campaign for the Loewe x My Neighbor Totoro collection sets the models in similar, forest-like settings seen in the classic animated film.
If you ask us, it’s one collaboration that makes total sense. Despite the difference origins and mediums between Loewe and Studio Ghibli, both are known for combining earnest stories with a fervent respect for craft and artisanal techniques.
After all, part of Ghibli’s immersive magic on screen is down to Hayao Miyazaki’s famed dedication to traditional (if laborious) animation techniques – the vast majority of their films are still hand-drawn to date.
The Loewe x My Neighbor Totoro collection is an ode to embracing one’s inner child and being at ease with nature.
For this collection, Loewe turned to its own repertoire of techniques, utilising leather marquetry to vivify the characters on familiar bags such as Puzzle, Balloon and the Hammock, while tapestry is used to create a three-dimensional miniature landscape on tote bag models.
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Here’s what Anderson hopes you take away from this lovely collection: “The message is one of dreamy serenity and hands-on creativity – of being at one with nature and with one’s own inner child – which is especially important right now and, I think, always will be.”
Browse below for some of our favourite items.
