Fashion brands are embracing the ‘Year of the Rabbit’ with unbridled enthusiasm, exceptional inventiveness and unwavering optimism.
As the rabbit is a symbol of wit, fortune and longevity in the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Rabbit, which begins on 22nd January, is believed to bring happiness, luck and success.
Numerous fashion brands have introduced a number of campaigns and collections to embrace and honour this occasion. To communicate the gist, they have very inventively incorporated colours, prints, silhouettes and ideas. Everything from bunny ears to fluffy fabrics were carefully considered.
Vibrant and Intricate Prints
In the world of pop culture and with Y2K fashion being popular, designers took the chance and moved forward with refined and fun interpretation of rabbits.
Gucci unveiled a campaign that combined the start of Spring and the Lunar New Year and rabbits served as the collection’s sole source of inspiration. The Italian high-end luxury fashion brand incorporated colourful knitwear, T-shirts, shoes and watches for both men and women. The women’s collection featured printed silk blouses and skirts, geometric patterns and a blend of opposing hues, whereas the men’s collection was largely embellished with lively graphic designs and sporty styles.
Even Burberry took a maximalist approach and launched a collection named ‘Take a Leap’, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit. Burberry’s most recent advertising campaign offers a fresh viewpoint by encouraging everyone to leap into the unknown like a rabbit. The campaign is focusing on the brand’s spirit of exploration.
The Thomas Burberry Monogram is whimsically reinvented with rabbit ears as part of the exclusive collection. This base motif is printed on clothing for men, women and kids as well as on the iconic Lola bag, accessories, cashmere and silk scarves.
The rabbit is a recurring element in the entire collection, including cartoon-inspired variations in which the ears are arranged back-to-back to form a heart shape.
Limited Colour Palettes
While most brands are going super-artistic and experimenting with loud hues, some brands are restricting their colour palettes and releasing polished, minimalist capsules.
For 2023 Lunar New Year, a campaign was started by the Italian fashion house Prada that highlights the wonderful events in life. The Zodiac Rabbit, a representation of beauty, served as inspiration for this campaign called ‘Memories of Beauty’ developed by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simmons.
The imagery was captured by aspiring photographer Nick Yang who is renowned for his poetry shots that capture the sensuous and surreal sides of reality. His pictures show celebrities next to physical things that serve as witnesses to a certain event in their past. The photographs provide the starting point for original tales that bring back memories associated with Lunar New Year while evoking its sensations and emotions.
The collection includes elegant velvet pieces, somber twill jackets, brushed leather lace-ups and square bags with distinguishing triangular designs, all in black and white.
Valentino is another fashion house that has taken a similar route by launching a red-hued collection as red is considered a symbol of Chinese happiness.
The Valentino Garavani Rosso collection celebrates the Year of the Rabbit with red-hued designs while paying homage to tradition and tying it to the present and the future. The vivid colour was utilised by Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli on a variety of ready-to-wear items and handbags with the Toile iconographic logo pattern.
Blend of Soft Colours and Comforting Silhouettes
To celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, Loewe launched a collection capsule loaded with pastel colours and easy-to-wear silhouettes. The name of the collection is ‘The Year of the Rabbit’.
Loewe honours the cultural custom of the bunny knot with its Lunar New Year’s capsule collection that ties floppy rabbit ears over the brand’s famous Bunny bag as well as its Basket, Hammock and Pocket bags.
Actress Tang Wei introduced the Year of the Rabbit capsule in a video in which she unboxed a huge, fluffy bunny rabbit she received in the mail and drove it across the Chinese countryside to meet up with a smaller bunny. Tang Wei celebrates how this wonderful time of year brings people together.
Maje, a French womenswear brand, also used soft-to-the-touch fabrics and pleasing-to-eye colours in its line. In celebration of the Lunar New Year, the brand collaborated with Jiayi Li, a Chinese illustrator and unveiled some commendable art related to The Year of the Rabbit.
The clothing in the collection, which is produced specifically for springtime and is displayed in knits, pastel colours and striking accessories, seeks to capture the mood as well.
The designers may have selected different concepts, as shown in Gucci’s vibrant and artistic collection or Valentino’s red-only capsule, but the theme of recognising and enjoying The Year of the Rabbit was present in all of the campaigns.
