Photos I took of all kinds of style Hello Kitty fans dressed themselves up in during Hello Kitty Con’s first day on Thursday, October 30, 2014. It’s Hello Kitty mania out there, celebrating her 40th anniversary!
By now, perhaps you already got a good sense of how much I love the Hello Kitty Con 2014’s fashion installation titled “Lovely Kitty Wonder.” They are a great showcase of how the 12 designers involved in the collaboration get inspired by seeing Hello Kitty as a fashion icon. But how about the regular people, a.k.a the fans?
During the VIP Reception / Media Preview night on Wednesday, October 29, I snapped a few photos of the more preppy and cute Hello Kitty girls, the always kawaii lolita girl Misako Aoki, pink sensation Hello Kitty fan / YouTube personality Chrissa Sparkles, and the more casual but cool JapanLA girls who were hanging out near the Lovely Kitty Wonder area.
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Little did I know that what I saw that night was the perfect prelude of what I’d see the day after: kawaii, lolita, youthful, cool, casual, and bold mixed into a pink bowl of style salad finished with Hello Kitty paper crown on top. Yes, apparently not only you can never have too many friends, but you can also never have too much style!
Let’s see the first group of people, moments after Hello Kitty Con officially started on Thursday morning. Wow, pink, red, blue, white, and Ms. Kitty White herself showing off two of her outfits! I especially love the couple from San Francisco: the girl wore a Hello Kitty kimono and the guy held a Hello Kitty fan like a BOSS. Yes!!!
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Later on that day, Mermaid Ashlynne proudly showed off her custom-made Hello Kitty corset (you can find her on Instagram @mermaidashlynne), a super cool lady dressed in Hello Kitty from head to toe (I want that varsity jacket!), more tutus, great iterations of Hello Kitty bow on a shaved head or as part of a turban knot, more pinks, more tutus, and ooh! those Hello Kitty boots! Or Vans! Don’t forget the accessories and free Hello Kitty Con bags, too.
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I’m such a sucker for lace, so of course I had to stop this lady who’s wearing a Hello Kitty lace patterned top! During that afternoon, I started seeing more and more cat-themed outfits, and the Hello Kitty Super Supermarket was predictably swamped with people wearing all Hello Kitty. I started to get dizzy at this point.
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But oh! I saw Yuko Yamaguchi passing by (I saw Katty Perry too, but I didn’t realize it was her when I saw her), plus many more fans wearing all things Sanrio. I kept bumping into the Hello Kitty lolita girls, so it’s only natural I stopped them every.single.time to take pictures of them! Man, I hope they’re not thinking I’m a crazy woman with short-term memory. And who could forget the vibrantly decked up in style Hello Kitty male fan that day? And even as I was leaving Geffen MOCA, I had to take one last shot: an Australian tourist who came to LA just for this Hello Kitty Con. And yep, she got lots of stuff to add to her collection!
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All in all, although I got pretty overwhelmed by all the Hello Kitty style mania, at the end of the day, it’s really great seeing so many fans from all walks of life. Girls, families, couples, mother and daughter combos…people from all ages celebrating Hello Kitty from their own unique point of views, regardless of how attached they are to Hello Kitty as an icon. It’s fascinating to see…until now, my mind is still trying to digest it all.
Thanks for reading; until next time,
Musank
Photos by Mira Musank