Kitties Resources

by Suedehead

The Two Lives of Our Favourite Kitty

In the real world, the one inhabited by you and I, she came to existence in the Tokyo region of Japan during the mid 1970s.  A creative individual, by the name of Shimizu carefully designed the iconic kitten, while working for the Sanrio Company. Sanrio began trading as a card shop, much like Hallmark do today, but once Hello Kitty was born, they were able to extend their merchandise much further, to the extent that, today, Sanrio have an annual turnover of anywhere between £1 and £4 billion!

Sanrio commissioned Shimizu to design a cartoon that would appeal to young children, girls in particular, in order that the image could be inscribed upon a vinyl purse, and the creation that followed received global acclaim within a very short space of time.  Indeed, first created in 1974, it took two short years to reach the American market, which it took by storm during 1976.  The vinyl purses were extremely popular, and remain so to this day.

The original cartoon character was depicted wearing a red bow on her left ear, and blue overalls below.  Bizarrely, she was drawn without a mouth, in the original picture, she was depicted sucking from a baby’s bottle, and so the mouth was concealed, however, the mouth has very rarely been added to any subsequent merchandise.  The reason behind this strange anomaly is actually due to an extremely effective marketing ploy, the lack of expression upon Kitty’s face enables people to project their own feelings upon the character, it creates a form of anthropomorphism, whereby we identify with the character, because she seems to be feeling the same way that we do.

During the 1980s, the cutesy little kitten lost some of her popularity, but during the 1990s, a new marketing strategy, which sold merchandise on the basis that it was kitsch and retro, ensured its survival, and today, the brand is more popular than ever.  A popularity that is clearly seen in the fact that more than 50,000 products have her picture on them.

However, in her world, she has a very different history, and an unusual one at that.  For a start, Kitty has dual nationality – she is Japanese and English.  There is much argument about where she was actually born, some say the suburbs of London, and others say she was born in the outskirts of Tokyo, where she was drawn.  She has a twin sister, called Mimmy White, who although not as popular as Kitty, is happy for her all the same.

You can easily spot the difference between the sisters, as one sports a red bow (Kitty) and the other a yellow bow (Mimmy). Their mother and father are called Mary White and George White, respectively.  They have many friends, including Bear and Moley.  All these characters appear on the Sanrio merchandise, although Kitty features most often.

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