My Neighbor Totoro is one of the sweetest and loveliest films ever made, and it turns 30 this year. To celebrate this huge anniversary, RockLove and Her Universe have collaborated on some beautiful limited edition jewelry featuring everyone’s favorite forest spirit. The collection consists of three necklaces which all showcase different sides of Totoro.
RockLove’s founder and designer Allison Cimino gave us a little insight into how the collection came to be. “I’ve been a fan of Studio Ghibli for a long time, so when invited by Ashley Eckstein of Her Universe to collaborate on this 30th anniversary collection I was extremely honored! In February 2018, Studio Ghibli had a Pop-Up Shop in San Francisco, so I flew out to meet with them and the Hot Topic/Her Universe team to discuss the creation of these 30th anniversary designs.”
As a lifelong Ghibli fan it was an overwhelming experience for the designer. “Meeting the creative team in San Francisco, I didn’t want to go empty-handed, so I prepared Branch Totoro and components of Acorn Totoro to demonstrate RockLove’s detail and quality. Normally you wouldn’t make such an assumption without many rounds of consumer product approval, but it felt like my best chance to impress the Studio Ghibli team and I took the risk! Branch Totoro’s pose–meditatively perched along a tree limb, bowing under his weight–is an image directly from the film. It allowed me to show an exact translation of their 2D animation to my 3D sculpts. Acorn Totoro was to demonstrate creativity since it’s not a moment pictured in the film. The act of revealing hidden Totoro within the two acorn halves demonstrates the magic and whimsy of the character, and I hoped Studio Ghibli would allow me to add my own interactive RockLove style.”
Cimino also shared her thoughts on what makes the classic animated movie so special and beloved. “My Neighbor Totoro is filled with such emotion–tranquility, love, wonder, coming of age, the bonds of family… every moment is deeply thoughtful. I hope my three little Totoros have captured a bit of the serenity and playfulness of the film.”
You can grab your own Totoro necklace here! Will you be rushing out to get one of the 250 specially made pieces? Let us know below!
Images: RockLove
