The NANA x Vivienne Westwood collab is finally happening after 25 years
A dream collaboration that has been wished for by fans for decades has finally become a reality.
The iconic manga series NANA and the legendary British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood have announced an official partnership.
The new project is being launched to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the globally popular and influential shōjo manga by the creator, Ai Yazawa.
NANA regularly collaborates with brands for officially licensed collections, such as a recent makeup line with KATE, however the announcement of a team up with Vivienne Westwood has been eagerly awaited by fans for as long as the series has been in print.
For many years, the two brands have been unofficially linked, as the manga’s punk-rock aesthetic was heavily inspired by Vivienne Westwood’s designs, with the character Nana Osaki frequently wearing clothing that was a direct homage to real-world Westwood pieces.
The first item to be revealed from this new, official collaboration is a special, exclusive variant cover for the “NANA 25th Anniversary Edition, Vol. 1.”
This “Vivienne Westwood Edition” features a brand-new, original cover illustration drawn by Ai Yazawa herself, which depicts the two protagonists, Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu, dressed in iconic Vivienne Westwood designs.
The special edition of the manga will also feature plaid “sprayed edges” on the pages.
This long-awaited collaboration has been a major topic of discussion for fans, and a promotional video shared by Vivienne Westwood on Instagram suggests that further announcements may be coming in the near future.
Many are hoping that the collaboration will extend to fashion items, however in the event of such an announcement it’s likely that demand would outstrip supply considerably, meaning it would no doubt be an incredibly hard collection to get hold of.
The exclusive, Vivienne Westwood edition of the manga will have a staggered, multi-phase release.
The first copies will be available at the VIZ Media booth at the New York Comic Con, which runs from the 9th to the 12th of October.
It will then be released exclusively at Books-A-Million in the United States on the 21st of October.
A release at Vivienne Westwood’s own boutiques is scheduled for the 30th of October.
Finally, a U.K. release is planned for the 20th of November at the bookseller Waterstones.
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