Magniberg and Moomin unite on joyful fashion collection

In 1945, in the wake of the Second World War, Finnish author Tove Jansson published The Moomins and the Great Flood – the start of a 35-year epic that would follow the hippo-like ‘snouted trolls’ on their adventures through the Edenic Moominvalley and beyond (she would write nine books and numerous comic books in this time, seeing the Moomins become Finland’s most notable cultural export).

A series of whimsical images from that first book – which tells the tale of how the Moomins ended up in Moominland after being displaced in a flood – appear across a new collaboration between Moomin and Swedish textiles brand Magniberg. In what is perhaps Magniberg’s most comprehensive fashion collection yet (alongside signature cotton loungewear and T-shirts, it introduces the brand’s first hoodie and denim), founders Bengt Thornefors and Nina Norgren gravitated towards the book’s message – ‘a story about hope that Jansson wrote as an antidote to war’ – and its charming illustrations, in their restrained palette of black, white and ‘sepia tones’.

An accompanying campaign is shot by Japanese photographer Takashi Homma, who is best known for his 1998 work Tokyo Suburbia, a series of images taken on the then-forgotten outskirts of the city (the photo book is rare and much-coveted). ‘He shot the series in a park near his home in Tokyo, capturing this beautiful light, and something emotionally poignant and also strong,’ says Thornefors, who noted he wanted to show that you could look still look ‘sexy’ in a Moomins T-shirt.