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Like spotting a rabbit in the woods, once you get fixated on a piece of rabbit decor it’s hard not to follow wherever it leads. When I was a child my mom fully leaned into decorating my bedroom with porcelain from the Peter Rabbit collection for Wedgwood during the early ’90s. As an adult I’ve toned down the amount of Peter Rabbit merch in my own collection, but have still sourced some rare memorabilia, like Beatrix Potter’s Two Rabbits with a Basket of Greens (1898) on the December 1984 cover of AD and a vintage Border Fine Arts (Ensco) teapot from 1999.
Against my own volition, The Tale of Peter Rabbit specifically has become an integral part of my personality—an ex once gifted me a sweatshirt printed with Benjamin Bunny from JW Anderson’s FW21 collection for Uniqlo. (I won’t deny that I’m pretty jealous of all the kids that are getting dripped out in Gucci x Peter Rabbit.) So imagine my pure delight when I recently found out about an exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum that celebrates the legacy of Beatrix Potter. As I peered through the glass at original drawings, books, and manuscripts from the collection, I was reminded of the pure wholesomeness that rabbit imagery evokes.
Phillip Palmer, Robert H. Taylor curator and department head of literary and historical manuscripts at the Morgan Library and Museum, credits much of Peter Rabbit’s everlasting appeal to Beatrix Potter’s skills as an illustrator and her accuracy in portraying animal characters in a realistic way that blended human and animal behaviors so convincingly. “It’s such a fascinating story that Beatrix herself was hyper-aware of this material early on, wanted to exert careful control over the licensing from early in her career, and was aware of these pirated Squirrel Nutkin and Peter Rabbit stuffed animals, for instance,” he says. “It’s appropriate, I think, to indulge in the merchandising of these books, given that Beatrix herself was so invested in it and supported it, and was so interested in producing the right kinds of products.”
It just so happens that my favorite tales from childhood feature rabbits: There’s the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland along with the rabbits in Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. (I didn’t realize how deep my bond was to this particular bedtime story until I momentarily lost my mind inside Fort Makers’ “Goodnight House” exhibit in 2021.) The 2001 film Donnie Darko is another favorite that comes to mind, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a sleepwalking teenager being followed by the ominous Frank the Rabbit—even more rabbit references are sprinkled throughout the movie like a classroom discussion about the animated version of Watership Down. (As fate would have it, Heaven by Marc Jacobs dropped a capsule collection commemorating the cult-classic film last year.) The rabbit is a motif I never intended to adopt, but the more I unpack it, the less embarrassed I feel to be associated with its likeness. Now that I’ve been briefed on the Bunny Museum, where more than 35,000 rabbit-related products await, I’m obviously planning a pilgrimage to Altadena, California, to pay my respects.
I don’t think we’re even close to hitting peak “rabbitcore,” as I like to call it. Miffy mania reached an all-time high in 2023 with her popularity rapidly growing since Dutch artist Dick Bruna conceived her image in 1955. Appearing in over 30 books, and on television, film, apparel, toys, and home goods, Miffy is a household name for Gen Zers across the globe—you can even find her at your local Urban Outfitters. According to Chay Costello, associate director of merchandising at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Miffy products have been stocked at the store since 2015, starting with the books and then the Miffy Floor Light, which has become an accent piece that adds a touch of whimsy inside modern homes. “We are also seeing people placing the white corduroy plush Miffies on a couch or chair as a more charming alternative to a decorative pillow,” she adds.
In recent years Chay has noticed increasing demand for products that “instill that feeling of whimsy, in general.” In response, MoMA Design Store has expanded their Miffy product assortment to include new iterations of the character in the form of wool rugs, a playful alarm clock, and even crochet dolls dressed in outfits inspired by Dutch artists in MoMA’s collection, like Van Gogh and Mondrian. “Miffy is immediately recognizable, and her likeness imbues a sense of calm happiness,” Chay says. “Miffy’s enduring popularity is in part due to the good design behind the character Bruna created—the minimal lines and modern color palette. Dick Bruna himself expressed that he aimed to make Miffy as simple as possible to leave room for children’s imagination.”
Citing MoMA’s 2012 exhibition Century of the Child, Chay attributes Miffy’s enduring popularity to “the simple genius of Dick Bruna’s idea—the economy of line and color that leaves room for all who encounter her to be inspired.” The store began carrying Miffy products because of the “throughline with MoMA’s history of collecting and exhibiting toys and games that play an important role in modern design.” As she further explains, “Miffy’s design shares characteristics with the modern art movement, which Dick Bruna was inspired by… His illustration style, with its strong black outlines and primary color palette, shares design DNA with the Dutch de Stijl movement. In some ways, Miffy herself can be seen almost as a pop art icon with her immediately recognizable likeness and many iterations over the decades.”
After years of yearning for the Warren Lamp from MacKenzie-Childs—and a failed attempt at securing it during a live auction that I lost by $50—I finally scored the masterpiece last November after spotting a listing on Facebook Marketplace. Designed in the ’90s, the furniture collection featured pieces made out of materials sourced from all over the world including pottery, rattan, ornate hand beaded fringes, and woven ajiro fabric. The rabbit has served as a common motif within the MacKenzie-Childs brand universe throughout the decades from the retired Rabbit Table to recent designs like the Rabbit Garden Totem and Courtly Check Resting Bunny.
Rebecca Proctor, creative director and chief brand officer of MacKenzie-Childs, observes how the beautiful, soft lines of their rabbits “provide a wonderful canvas for our graphic patterns” that creates a sense of surprise wherever you place them in a room. “From our earliest beginnings as a company, people have responded to our design sensibility with comparison to the world of Lewis Carroll and his immortal Alice in Wonderland,” she explains in an email. “Alice had the White Rabbit as her guide to a world of wonder and enchantment. Rabbits have always been meaningful to us—we’ve used them as feet for furniture, as decorative elements, as lamp bases, as tassels, and most recently as standalone sculpted objects. We just love them!”
Rebecca also points out that rabbits have been a design icon for centuries, using the work of artists like Albrecht Dürer and Jeff Koons as prime examples. “They embody a sense of innocence and a connection to the natural world, which is what I think makes them irresistible,” she adds. For me, rabbits also embody a sense of childlike wonder and innocence. I’m sure there was a turning point once Hugh Hefner’s Playboy went into circulation in 1953 and graphic designer Art Paul gave the rabbit a new image with his iconic bunny logo, which was more or less a warning for NSFW content, but the deviant side of the rabbit also made a return during the aughts when Happy Bunny merchandise was prominently displayed within Hot Topic stores across the nation. Though more innocent, Philip points out how Peter Rabbit represents a misfit and rebel, noting that “there’s a real sense of danger in the story” with all the trouble he gets himself into at Mr. McGregor’s garden.
Madeline Malenfant, a Brooklyn-based fashion designer, has a soft spot for medieval rabbits specifically because they “flip the whole narrative upside down and make them a menacing creature” compared to the sweet and docile characters portrayed in children’s books. “I love that there’s this dichotomy with rabbits,” she says while highlighting the psychedelic nature of rabbits. “I find the bunny in particular has this sort of split personality between being this really sweet, endearing Easter Bunny and then this other character that’s sort of evil.”
The subtle embrace of rabbit decor has made me wonder if there’s something more profound happening beneath the surface. Following all her literary success from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter famously had a “second act” as a sheep breeder and land conservationist, living in the English countryside at Hill Top Farm. (Philip points out that many people overlook “her staunch environmentalism and her vision for preserving a way of life that was certainly under threat and in transition.”) Since the pandemic began there’s been a noticeable shift of interest in this type of aesthetic from fashion and interiors to the full-on rural lifestyle that many people were quick to retreat to during the early days of lockdown. The Year of the Mushroom wasn’t just a passing trend, it signaled a movement toward more sustainable practices. Similarly, the resurgence of vegetable decor feels closely intertwined with other themes that have emerged from this period, underscoring a collective desire to reconnect with the outdoors by re-establishing our relationships with the land.
“I think maybe there’s an affinity between that kind of move and this tendency or interest in trying to recapture a simpler way of life, perhaps amidst the maelstrom of technology, and the chaos and precarity of the world,” says Philip. “The world can be overwhelming and nature and the slow rhythms that it has always had help us cope with that.”
Madeline also sees how everything is colliding in real time as the cottagecore aesthetic gradually fizzles out. “Rabbits paint a pastoral picture and, especially living in New York, I think having a rabbit in your room makes you feel like you’re living in the country or something like that,” she explains. “It creates this world outside of the one that you live in.” Within that framework, rabbits sort of represent a form of escapism—think about how Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole to Wonderland or how Donnie time travels with Frank the Rabbit into another dimension to save the world. Madeline agrees with this hypothetical of rabbits being a “vehicle for rural life,” something that she also doesn’t quite understand but fully acknowledges.
“People want to surround themselves with objects that improve their everyday lives, and that includes things that delight and inspire them,” says Chay. “In many cultures, rabbits are associated with luck—think of the tradition of saying ‘rabbit, rabbit’ on the first of the month in the hopes of bringing good luck all month through. We look to our homes as a haven of comfort and coziness, and rabbits with their hutches evoke that feeling.”
No doubt you’ve seen this floor lamp in kids rooms, but all the grownups are buying it too.
The perfect piece if you like your plates on the wall, which signals a true-to-this-not-new-to-this Beatrix Potter fan.
As an early believer in the Middle Ages Modern aesthetic, it should come as no surprise that I’m absolutely mad for medieval rabbits!
MacKenzie-Childs recently reintroduced this classic from their ’90s collection, which originally included tables, lamps, fireplace screens, bombay dresser chests, and planter pots.
A pair of bunnies for good luck will surely bring you bookshelf wealth.
Loewe never misses.
Currently obsessed with this interpretation of Goodnight Moon by the artist Suki White.
This speaks volumes for fridge decor.
I’m in my tea-tin era, so this trio gets two thumbs up.
A household staple for veggie decor girls.
Could there be anything more serene for a tablescape than a rabbit tureen?
Every time you use these bunny napkins you can think about Hunt Slonem dining like a king at his castle in Pennsylvania.
This screams intellectual dreamer.
Consider this my gateway to toile de Jouy, a pattern that never really appealed to me until now.
Definitely not for everyone, but wouldn’t this look cute in a sunroom surrounded by houseplants?
A more subtle way to show your appreciation for rabbits.
Who wants to loan me the money for this screen?
