Established in the 1950s, ‘Peanuts’ is now celebrating its 60th birthday. One of the celebration events, organised by Peanuts Worldwide LLC and SPECIAL PROJECT CONSULTING, is a collaboration with fifteen international fashion labels. The result is a world-touring exhibition titled ‘Peanuts 60 Years World Tour’.

WORLD TOUR WITH 15 FASHION BRANDS
The selected labels are: Arts & Science, N.Hoolywood, Mastermind Japan, OriginalFake, Hysteric Glamour, Lacoste, Converse, Longchamp, Loopwheeler, Mulberry, Medicom Toy, Aprosio & Co, Joujou, Lucien Pellat-Finet and Baccarat. They are asked to take ‘Peanuts’ comic as inspiration and infuse it with the labels’ key items. The designs are then exhibited and available for sale in selected boutiques worldwide, such as Dover Street Market in London, colette in Paris, 10 Corso Como in Milan and Soeul, Jeffrey in New York, Joyce in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Club 21 in Singapore and Isetan in Tokyo. Hayato Kohama, the director of SPECIAL PROJECT CONSULTING and producer of this extensive project made an appearance in Hong Kong to tell us more about the process.

How did this collaboration with Peanuts Worldwide LLC come about?
Peanuts Worldwide LLC came to us with a proposal to organise a celebration event for the 60th Anniversary of ‘Peanuts’, back in 2009. Observing the consumer trend in Japanese market, we suggested that the event is to aim at a high-end crowd, those have a soft spot for artist and designer collaborations and fashion. And then we went to discuss the proposal with fifteen renowned labels.

You seem to have excellent relationship with the fifteen labels. Please could you tell us how it all started?
Prior working as director at SPECIAL PROJECT CONSULTING, I worked at Isetan for fourteen years and was working as Merchandising Director when I left the company. I was involved in many exhibitions in the duration, such as Exhibition of Helmut Newton Meets Comme des Garçons, Exhibition of Zucca × Disney, Exhibition of UK Jack, OK! with colette and DSM. I have been keeping a great relationship with numerous labels. Peanuts Worldwide LLC came to me because they like what I did with ‘Vogue’ Japan previously.

What were your criteria in selecting these labels?
Peanuts Worldwide LLC and I selected the labels together. We contacted some American labels but interestingly, they all replied saying ‘Peanuts’ is such a household name that they consider it too difficult a project to tackle. In the end we didn’t get any American labels. On the contrary, we didn’t have this problem in Japan and the designers love the characters. In terms of criteria, there was only one ─ we wanted the labels to create a version of their key items. Therefore we have Longchamp and Mulberry bags, Medicom Toy Be@rbrick and Converse high top.

Which item is your favourite, out of the fifteen?
It has to be the Lacoste polo shirt! One just can’t help smiling seeing the Lacoste emblem blended with ‘Peanuts’ characters. Polo shirt is also such an everyday clothing item. Apart from that, I think the Arts & Science design is very cool. Handmade white ceramics are one-offs and only a limited edition of twenty to thirty units is available. To achieve all these within the tight timeframe, both Peanuts Worldwide LLC and I are very pleased.

Personally, how do you feel about ‘Peanuts’ comic?
I grew up with ‘Peanuts’ comic, and my favourite character is Charlie Brown. It is such a shame that Charles M. Schulz (author of ‘Peanuts’) is no longer with us and the younger generation only knows it as a cartoon, as opposed to a comic. I hope people of this generation would get to know ‘Peanuts’ properly.

Text: iemi | Translation: dilettante
Photo: Ching
Update: 16 Oct 2010

PEANUTS 60YEARS WORLD TOUR
No. 232, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong.
Until 4 Nov 2010
www.joyce.com