Loewe x Spirted Away Spring 2022 Ad Campaign

Review of Loewe X Spirted Away Spring 2022 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Jonathan Anderson and Photographer Juergen Teller with talent Mica Argañaraz, Kit Butler and Dua Saleh

Loewe shares a new Spring 2022 campaign in celebration of the collaboration with legendary Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli. The campaign was photographed by Juergen Teller.

Following last year’s collaborative capsule centering around Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro, the latest chapter of the collaboration features what is probably the studio’s most famous and beloved film, Spirited Away.

Teller captures the collection in simple and lo-fi in-studio photographs. Appropriate to such whimsical source material, his models have fun posing with the pieces of the collection. A subversively fun bit of deconstructionism creeps into the campaign: in a few images, we can see Teller’s silhouette as he photographs with an iPhone camera.

The one bit of nudity wherein a naked model is covered only with special-edition Loewe X Ghibli bags does feel a bit out of place – it’s fun, but the bit of cheeky sex appeal doesn’t feel like it belongs in imagery that leans into an emotional landscape childlike wonder.

The images are finished off with smart and playful art direction that illuminates the Loewe wordmark with a soot sprite, the iconically adorable spirit that appears in both Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

Studio Ghibli is only becoming more internationally popular and beloved, but this year marks an especially smart time to be on their team, with the release of the new film How Do You Live? and a Ghibli theme park coming later this year. The singular vision of Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson is equal parts playful and refined; the collaboration and its campaign are an excellent way to express these values with ease, style, and fun.