Kojak's New Haute Couture Collection Draws Inspiration from Legendary Shape-Shifting Spider

Japanese folklore is full of what the west might call ‘quirky’ legends, but one of the most fascinating comes in the form of Jorōgumo, a mystical 400-year-old spider that has the ability to will itself into looking like a beautiful, extravagant young woman who then seduces men before having them for dinner. While the average Joe would dismiss it as a mystifying fairytale, the ancient story served as an inspiration for Kojak’s latest haute couture collection, unambiguously called 'Caught in Her Web.'

With pieces for men and women, this collection's diverse colour palette draws on the extreme states of being of the Jorōgumo - an alluring woman one minute, a nasty, flesh-eating spider the next - featuring everything from angelic white all the way to pitch black. The messy dynamics between Jorōgumo and her lovers are channelled through distinct, asymmetric cuts, a trend which seems pretty much en vogue this year.

“Each piece in the collection draws onto the Jorōgumo in its own unique way,” says Mohanad Kojak, Chief Designer of Kojak. “It is as if each piece is its own Jorōgumo with own personal characteristics.”

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