Artist Rithika Merchant collaborates with Chloé again for lunar new year capsule collection

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Feb 12, 2019

Chloé’s capsule collection for the Chinese New Year is the brand’s second collaboration with the Indian artist Rithika Merchant. The collection features Merchant’s artwork and her interpretation of the Year of the Pig.

The new Chloé capsule collection features a t-shirt, sweatshirt, sneakers, and handbags, all printed with Merchant’s whimsical paintings of red pigs and flowers. Floral elements and red spots add a naïve charm to the illustrations which have an almost dreamlike quality. The '70s inspiration of Chloé’s latest collection is also echoed in the structured handbags and floral motifs. 

“The team at Chloé has been really welcoming about my ideas,” Merchant told Vogue India about the collaboration. “They don’t give a tonne of projections. They pretty much let me do whatever, and I have quite a lot of freedom on my vision.”

Merchant, who works with the Mumbai-based gallery Tarq, said about her design inspiration: “Pigs are anyway considered lucky, and since this was the year of the earth pig, I wanted to incorporate elements of that. I also like botanical stuff, so there’s that and obviously lots of red since it is about the Chinese New Year.”

The collection marks Chloé’s continued relationship with Merchant and shines the global fashion spotlight on Indian art.