Fashion is having a bit of an analogue moment. As more of the industry looks back to traditional techniques, physical making and the imperfections of the handmade, Loewe’s new seasonal collabortion feels particularly well timed. The house turned to Disney’s Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, a film whose entire visual world was painstakingly built by hand, one frame at a time.
First released in 1993, the cult classic was created using stop-motion animation, articulated puppets and handcrafted miniature sets. That commitment to the handrawn is what makes the collaboration such a natural fit for a house like Loewe with 180 years of craftsmanship behind it. With special access to the film’s archives, including original sketches and puppets of Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero, Loewe has translated the film’s distinctive visual language into a collection spanning bags, accessories, ready-to-wear, fragrance and leather goods.
The characters and scenes appear across leather marquetry, embroidery, prints and enamel, with unexpected constructions and material combinations giving the collection a distinctly Loewe interpretation of Burton’s wonderfully strange universe. The result is less straightforward film merchandise and more wearable surrealism.
The accompanying campaign brings together an intergenerational cast including Loewe ambassadors Eva Victor and David Jonsson, alongside Sandra Bernhard and Jordan Firstman. Set inside a surreal, shop-like building, the film plays with familiar retail spaces, from fitting rooms to staircases and store windows, distorting their proportions with striped walls, warped mirrors and upside-down steps. Outside, soft winter snow adds to the dreamlike atmosphere.
Photographer Paul Kooiker also contributes a series of fantastical still-life images featuring the collection’s bags, charms and scarves, while a behind-the-scenes documentary offers a glimpse into the original film’s creative process. In it, Tim Burton reflects on the simplicity of the story and the extraordinary collective effort involved in bringing its world to life.
It’s a fitting collaboration for a moment when fashion seems increasingly interested in what technology cannot quite replicate: the character, texture and human touch of something made by hand. Even the campaign’s animation, produced by Auckland-based Flux Animation Studio using a traditional 3D animation process, nods to the craft behind the original film.
The Loewe x Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas collection arrives November 12.