Jason Wu x Cat Person Is Oh So Chic
“My cats are kind of like my best friends. I wanted to design accessories and cat care items that a human being would want to use.”
You’d think that Jason Wuopens in a new tab, with his many design-adjacent pursuits, would be a difficult get for a non-fashion related collaboration. While I still think this is a fair assessment, I was surprised and delighted to learn that Wu’s latest collection was chic matte black products for pet lifestyle brand, Cat Personopens in a new tab.
“I think I’ve always been a cat person,” Wu explains. His intuitive understanding of the utility required to create a line of functional cat products without sacrificing style is baked into his life-long love of the species. It’s no wonder that Wu was able to seamlessly merge his minimalist approach to street style with his love for cats, creating a simple black hoodie with a sketched cat graphic symmetrically printed on the chest.
As far as the other products in the collection, Wu found a way to produce a litter box that looks like a tiny contemporary home, the likes of which would be featured in Architectural Digest. He took care to include ventilation (for the pleasure of both cats and humans) through holes poked in the wooden lidded box, noting that the design would, “Allow a lot of light to come through.” Aptly titled the Skylight Litter Box, its stainless steel counterpart, the Hideaway Scoop, aids one of the notably non-glamorous parts of cat ownership in its journey to palatability.
Another addition to an already beloved customer favorite, the posture correcting Mesa Bowl, Wu opted to paint it black. No, really. The entire bowl, stand, and tray were produced in an impossibly-chic matte black finish that looks more like a West Elm serving tray you’d see at your hippest friend’s dinner party than a food bowl for cats.
Finally, no line of cat favorites would be complete without a truly exceptional toy. In Wu’s case, he intended to add a bit of tongue in cheek humor to his design. “I thought it was funny to make the little cat toy in the shape of the dog,” he told People Mag, “and also my Chinese Zodiac sign is a dog. So, there’s many personal elements and an anecdote that went into designing that toy.”
He showcased each of his designs in a “Haute CATure” videoopens in a new tab, directed by fashion photographer Cason Latimer, in which different cat breeds prance across a stage to the soundtrack of “Nice” from new musician Goldhouse, and gave their best sultry fashion squint. It’s not called a cat eye for nothing.
When asked about his motivation for designing pet-centric products, the multi-hyphenate responded, “What I didn’t love about other products that were available on the market is that they were either unattractive or too complicated to use.” It’s clear that Wu had his own two cats, Jinxy and Peaches, in mind when thinking up the innovative products, admitting, “My cats are kind of like my best friends. I wanted to design accessories and cat care items that a human being would want to use.”
