Takashi Murakami’s delirious collages of grinning flowers – their contours inspired by the art of anime and manga – have become a leitmotif of the Japanese artist’s work, adorning walls of galleries, Louis Vuitton handbags, and even the cover of Wallpaper* (evoked in the manner of a vintage video game, one of his flowers appeared on the limited-edition November 2023 Art Issue to celebrate the opening of an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco).
So when it came to the creation of a new footwear line – which was launched in November 2024 at ComplexCon Las Vegas – it was unsurprising that Murakami would place this iconic motif front and centre, seeing a bold rendering of the artist’s classic flower adorn colourful, oversized sliders in soft EVA foam (the brand’s name, Ohana Hatake, translates from Japanese as ‘field of flowers’). According to Murakami, it is the ‘first-of-its-kind footwear brand led by an artist’, as well as marking his own debut fashion label, despite having created a slew of merch and collaborated with the likes of Uniqlo and Louis Vuitton.
Takashi Murakami’s Ohana Hatake arrives at Selfridges
From today, Ohana Hatake is available in a colourful pop-up at The Corner Shop Selfridges, an ephemeral space at the front of the London department store which has hosted recent residencies from the likes of Loewe, Celine and Jacquemus. Promising a full-scale immersion into the Murakami universe – expect boldly-hued displays and subsequent Instagram ubiquity – the store will be open from today (August 4 2025) until August 24 2025.
The pop-up follows a second launch event at the Hong Kong ComplexCon in November, which saw Murakami create a bucolic (faux) garden at the streetwear convention, complete with sprouting grass, flowers and cherry trees in the bloom of sakura blossom. He has also revealed the counterpart to the ‘Ohana Full-Bloom’ slider, another slip-on style in EVA foam which is inspired by the Japanese house slipper (simpler in design, it nonetheless features an embossed flower motif and flower-adorned sole).
Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, a similar installation appeared at Hong Kong’s Pacific Place mall, where a blossom tree is crowned with a perpetually falling confetti of petals – the sort of fantastical world-building that Murakami has long proved adept at.
The Corner Shop, Selfridges. 400 Oxford St, London WIA 1AB, UK. Until August 24.
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