We reflect on the historic feline obsession immortalised within Jonathan Anderson's A/W16 collection for the Spanish house
Loewe Cat Charm
Orange and green resin and Napa leather, 4.9" x 3.9" x 1.2"
For more than four millennia, cats have fascinated and inspired our own, less poised species. The ancient Egyptians went as far as to mummify their feline friends, who they also happened to worship, and the four-legged creatures have since made their way into our contemporary homes, hearts, and newsfeeds. It’s hard to imagine what the Internet would be today without its glittering cast of celebrity kittens: Grumpy Cat now has her own memoir and an animatronic waxwork at Madame Tussauds; Pusheen, the slightly cumbersome burger-eating tabby, has been immortalised by the countless emoticons of her exchanged in Facebook messages every second; swathes of the world’s population have been absorbed by Neko Atsume, the two-dimensional Japanese gaming app that allows you to collect kittens and spoil them with fictional toys and treats.
Perhaps such cultural currency was what inspired Jonathan Anderson, Loewe’s famously esoteric creative director, to celebrate (or, perhaps, parody?) our somewhat sacred relationship with these creatures in the Spanish brand’s fall collection. Crafted from nappa leather, Loewe’s cat head pendants are feats of its leather workshops, which have somehow managed to make the material look like marbled porcelain. There’s an air of the kitsch maneki-neko to them, the plastic Chinatown cat figurines with a paw raised firmly in the air, believed to give good fortune to their owners. Paired with the brand’s impeccable leather bags or handkerchief-hem flou dresses, it becomes less cartoonish and more iconic – a handcrafted nod to society’s feline fixation. That, and simply a fabulous conversation starter. As it turns out, just like the Egyptians, we’re utterly in awe of a statement charm – and we wouldn’t mind taking this one to our tombs.
