3 months ago
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The flamboyant decorator down Hello Kitty — the cute Japanese quality that became a planetary mega marque — is stepping down aft much than 4 decades successful complaint of her look.
Yuko Yamaguchi has been liable since 1980 for the plan of Kitty, who is officially not a feline but a small miss from London, overseeing her emergence to the epitome of Japan's "kawaii" — cute — brushed power.
But present Ms. Yamaguchi, who often wore Kitty-style dresses successful nationalist and piled her hairsbreadth successful buns — has "passed the baton to the adjacent generation", Sanrio, the institution down the character, said connected its website Tuesday (February 10, 2026).
The institution said caller decorator "Aya" — a pseudonym — was owed to commencement by the extremity of 2026.
Ms. Yamaguchi "listened to the voices of fans, actively collaborated with artists and designers from Japan and overseas and has grown Hello Kitty into a quality loved by everyone", Sanrio said, arsenic it thanked her for her work.
Hello Kitty started beingness arsenic an illustration connected a vinyl coin purse.
It has since appeared connected tens of thousands of products — everything from handbags to atom cookers — and has secured lucrative tie-ups with Adidas, Balenciaga and different apical brands.
The improvement shows nary motion of slowing, with a Warner Bros movie successful the pipeline and a caller Hello Kitty taxable parkland owed to unfastened adjacent twelvemonth connected China's tropical Hainan island.
Unlike different Japanese taste exports specified arsenic Pokemon oregon Dragon Ball, determination is minimal communicative astir the character, whose afloat sanction is Kitty White.
She has a duplicate sister Mimmy, a fellow called Dear Daniel, and a favored feline of her own, Sanrio says. She loves her mother's pome pastry and dreams of becoming a pianist oregon poet.
