An interesting week at school. Amongst the presentations on retail strategy given by Imim 2, one group made up of Chinese and Polish students based their analysis on US brand Anna Sui, a major success in Asia. They looked at the brand through the prism of Kawaii. Japanese for cute, Kawaii is now a major cultural phenomenon across China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. It dates back to the 1970’s and has its roots in the Japanese national identity, in particular its love of harmony. Kawaii has become a major part of popular culture since then, developing across entertainment, clothing, food and toys. From the use of Pikachu on Nippon Airways jets to Hello Kitty and the Japanese Self Defense Forces’ logo, Kawaii is everywhere, sometimes in the most incongruous situations. It’s particularly popular in fashion, hence the success of Anna Sui and the images we see of asian trend setters or perhaps fashion victims, dressed in school uniform and princess type outfits. For foreign observers, it leaves us perplexed as the line between kawaii and kitsch is extremely thin, but whilst kitsch is usually used perogatively to describe the crass, tasteless and sentimental, this is definitely in the positive and cutting edge stuff. It taps firmly into the adultescant trend of dressing up and playing with princess dolls, through the dynamics of its website and the fuzzing between make up and accessories. . Enter Anna Sui’s site and it’s a lively cultural cocktail, shaken with vivid colours and stirred with vibrant graphics. Kawaii is now crossing the frontiers; singer Gwen Stefani uses it in her pop videos and clothing collection and the influence of mangas was seen lately at Hermes and Louis Vuitton. Where once Damien Rice said 'you wanna be rich, you wanna be kitsch' for kitsch now read kawaii.
