California Apparel News

Cute is serious business in Japan.

Japanese prefectures, police departments and public broadcaster NHK have their own mascots, such as the Hello Kitty cat and Pokémon creatures, that are deemed to be adorable by many and annoying by some. It’s also cultivated a deep influence on young women’s fashions in the Land of the Rising Sun. In Japan, some young women wear cartoonish, Victorian-inspired looks and are identified as devotees of the country’s “cute culture,” which is called “kawaii” in Japanese.

While Hello Kitty has long been popular in the United States, companies such as Los Angeles–based JapanLA see an opportunity to make kawaii style more prominent. JapanLA, a retailer and advocate of the Japanese sense of cute, produced a fashion show Dec. 7 at The Well boutique in downtown Los Angeles.

During the show, JapanLA exhibited a capsule collection with the cute brand Rilakkuma, a division of San-X. It is called “JapanLA for Rilakkuma.”The dresses, tops, sweaters, leggings and onesies for adults were inspired by Rilakkuma, a cartoon bear whose favorite activities are sleeping, eating and listening to music. The fashion show featured JapanLA’s capsule collection, said Jamie Rivadeneira, president of the JapanLA company, which runs a JapanLA boutique at 7320½ Melrose Ave.

JapanLA’s looks featured fitted dresses, cardigan sweaters and spandex leggings with graphics of pancakes associated with the Rilakkuma brand. The show’s tops were provided by Chatsworth, Calif.–based company Goodie Two Sleeves. The onesies were designed by Japanese company Sazac.

JapanLA started business in 2006, and one reason why it got into manufacturing its own looks last year was that Rivadeneira saw that a market was growing for cute clothes in the United States.

She felt there was no cute fashion for adults in the U.S. While there were T-shirts and juniors-style clothing, there were no clothes offering adult silhouettes and high-quality fabrics.

JapanLA’s clothes are designed by the company’s creative director, Stephiee Nguyen. The company plans to do more fashion collaborations with Japanese cute brands, including Tokidoki, a Los Angeles–headquartered fashion and pop-culture company. JapanLA’s collaboration with Tokidoki debuted last week, and it features dresses and leggings with prints of the brand’s unicorn pony character, named Unicornos.

Like JapanLA’s Rivadeneira, Tokidoki co-founder Pooneh Mohajer believes the potential for cute culture is growing for America’s college and post-college set.

“Japanese cute culture and all things ‘kawaii’ resonate with people of all ages and cultures because the imagery and characters touch a special place that resides in all of our hearts—that childlike innocent part that is within all of us,” Mohajer said.