Released in 2001, Studio Ghibli’s animated cult classic Spirited Away just celebrated its 20th-anniversary last year. The Hayao Miyazaki-directed movie became the highest-grossing film in Japanese History and the first (and only) hand-drawn and non-English film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Today, Loewe is launching a capsule collection in celebration of Miyazaki’s fantasy world.
Loewe x Spirited Away marks the brand’s second collaboration with the Japanese animation studio following creative director Jonathan Anderson’s My Neighbour Totoro collection last January. For this collection, Anderson invites the film’s most beloved characters – Chihiro, Haku, Yubaba, Kaonashi (No-Face), Susuwatari Soot Sprites and more – onto soft leather accessories, blankets, printed tees and knits. Playful figures are embroidered and printed throughout the collection as jacquard, appliqué and patch designs. The Suswatari appear as pompoms and tufty bags while the most recognisable landscapes from the film have been transformed into overwhelming prints.
With craftsmanship at the heart of every Loewe collection, Anderson was inspired by the Japanese technique of ‘boro’ – patching indigo-dyed scraps together to create an intarsia of Kasuri textiles and Anagram jacquard canvas on both ready-to-wear and bags.
Campaign images shot by Juergen Teller play with shadows, mirroring the juxtaposing intersection of worlds in the film. The campaign features musical artist Dua Saleh alongside models Kit Butler, Hyunji Shin and Mica Arganaraz.
Loewe x Spirited Away is available now, visit loewe.com
