Fashion Influential #95: Yuko Shimizu

image via ualberta.ca

YUKO SHIMIZU
Born:
November 1 in Chiba, Japan
Designed Hello Kitty:
1974
Hello Kitty Fans:
Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Drew Barrymore, Mandy Moore, Heidi Klum
Beginnings.
In 1974, young illustrator Yuko Shimizu showed a drawing of a cat to her boss, Sanrio founder Shintaro Tsuji, who said it was "not too bad." Inspired by the cats in Through the Looking Glass, Shimizu presented a design of perfect simplicity that, despite her boss' apparent ambivalence, struck a chord with millions of consumers, both children and adults.

Career Highs.
The first Hello Kitty product was a small, clear vinyl coin purse. Within a year, Hello Kitty items were Sanrio's best-selling products. Each year, Sanrio designers invent a new theme for the character to keep collectors lusting after Hello Kitty products. Now Hello Kitty items sell for as little as $.50 (for candies) into the thousands (for diamond-encrusted jewelry).
Think happy thoughts...and boys will buy you diamonds!
                                                                      - Hello Kitty
Mariah Carey has a Hello Kitty bathroom.
Career Lows.
Shimizu's design is plastered over everything from hair brushes to automatic rifles, but she's no longer involved with the Hello Kitty world. She left Sanrio in 1976 to get married and have children, and did not profit much from having designed one of the best-selling images of the past century.



Legacy.
Tsuji, who marketed Hello Kitty products, brilliantly capitalized on the Japanese gift-giving culture by offering simple, affordable designs. Hello Kitty was one of the first Japanese imports to make it big in the US. She epitomizes the elements of Japanese pop culture that have found a home in American fashion - mainly, cuteness.

image via Reuters

Interesting Fact.
This year, a Hello Kitty Maternity Hospital opened in Taiwan: mothers can give birth in the calming atmosphere of Japan's favorite mouthless cartoon cat. Newborns are swaddled in Hello Kitty blankets, and are attended by nurses in pink Hello Kitty uniforms.