Be it Tom of Finland, David Wojnarowicz, or Gilbert and George, Jonathan Anderson has long aligned himself with some of the most important artists of our time, emblazoning his designs with their rousing paintwork and illustrations. The designer’s latest offering at Loewe takes him all the way to Tokyo, producing a capsule indebted to the 2001 Oscar-winning animation Spirited Away.
Having mined My Neighbour Totoro for sartorial inspiration last year, this new collection is the second to come from Anderson’s partnership with Studio Ghibli. Here, the film’s most recognisable faces – Chihiro, Yubaba, and Kaonashi – emerge on leather bags, creamy knitwear, blankets, and t-shirts. Bucolic landscapes have been transformed into all-over prints, while the movie’s enchanted soot-balls (which cover the floor of the bathhouse where the story is based) become pompoms and tufty bags.
As we have come to expect with Loewe, the construction of the pieces are rooted in traditional craftmanship, informed by the Japanese ‘boro’ technique which sees indigo-dyed scraps patchworked together to create an intarsia of artisan Kasuri textiles. From Chihiro Hammock bags and hand-knitted, crew-neck sweaters woven with Yu-bird and Bô intarsia motifs, check out Anderson’s Juergen Teller-lensed lookbook in the gallery above.