THE SUNDAY CLASSICS: MIFFY BY DICK BRUNA
There are many children’s characters that make a bedroom a true place of peace and enjoyment for a child, but few are as contemporary and stylish as the little white rabbit called Miffy.
Today kids are bombarded with so many characters from Transformers to Barbie and a variety of other TV characters but these mass market, licenced characters lack the charm and innocence of days gone by. Miffy, the small Dutch Rabit was created by legendary Dutch artist and author Dick Bruna and has stood the test of time.
In true children’s story style, Miffy came about when Bruna and his then One year old son, Sierk, saw rabbit in the hopping through the dunes. Ever creative, Bruna began to tell his son a made up story about the rabbit and a legend, that at first was a boy and now a girl, was born. Early examples of Miffy had a fluffy-eared rabbit but Miffy soon became a simple, minimalist and iconic rabbit that is well known and loved today.
Because of the simple, minimalistic illustrations of the little white rabbit, Miffy soon became a popular design to use for interior design. The illustrations became immediately recognisable and the with the primary colours of White (for Miffy) with nothing more than green, orange and blue with black outlines. Kids knew by the design and colours alone that the rabbit was Miffy.
The simplicity and almost non-descript nature of the Miffy Bunny flows with innocence and charm and the character has become a familiar sight in many bedrooms all over the world. Some people don’t even know who Miffy is or was, they don’t really mind as a Bunny is the perfect, non-gender specific character for a young child’s bedroom. The bunny alone, regardless of its name really adds something special to a child’s room and one simply cannot help but fall in love with the character as an end result.
The Dick Bruna character has seen somewhat of a revival in recent years with a movie in 2013 and a TV series in 2016 and kids are a little more familiar with her. The inclusion of Miffy in a bedroom lends itself to the very popular gender neutral Scandinavian inspired interiors with a clean, minimalistic aesthetic . The Miffy lamp is simple and functional and very easy on the eye. Its the perfect foundation for the start of a Childs project.
Miffy is surprisingly close in design to Hello Kitty, it is of course unique and for a young child in particular Miffy makes the perfectfeature of a room and does indeed become a focal point. Décor needs little more than a white background to make Miffy work; it is more than just classic and borderline iconic. Miffy will become something a child becomes familiar with, softer than many of the modern day designs and characters, the white rabbit is quintessentially something from a slower, more relaxed bygone era, with the eerie similarity to Hello Kitty bringing it bang up to date.
Miffy has to be a true Sunday classic creating a space where any parent can sit with a little one read stories from a book or, just as Dick Bruna did make up some stories that will never be forgotten.
Miffy & friend lamps are now available at The Modern Nursery.
