Hasta La Ideas

Following the recent death of the wonderful TV presenter and artist Tony Hart, one of his most famous creations, Morph, is to appear on the cover of the March issue of Esquire. And he finally has some clothes

It’s actually Morph’s 30th birthday, which makes this writer feel extremely old. To celebrate, Esquire and a team from Aardman Animations, which brought the original Morph to life on Take Hart, have given the little feller a wardrobe by the likes of Burberry, Gucci and Prada – in plasticine, of course.

Morph features on the subscriber cover and, with his old mate Chaz, on inside pages (Esquire art director: David McKendrick).

Apparently, it took Aardman’s Peter Lord and team 8 weeks to create the outfits and scenes.

“I must say the Esquire shoot was a hoot. The joke is that Morph’s wardrobe – which is approximately one-twelfth scale – was almost certainly worth twice as much as my wardrobe, Lord says. “Morph is really tiny – only about 12 or 13 centimetres tall. I couldn’t imagine how you could make clothes so tiny and then fit them around Morph’s body – which isn’t exactly slim – and still have them look good.”

This isn’t the first time one of Aardman’s characters has crossed over into the world of high fashion – last year we reported on Wallace and Gromit starring in a Harvey Nichols campaign. What next, Shaun the Sheep for Baaahberry? (Sorry)

The issue is out February 5. All images (C) Aardman 2008 for Esquire magazine