Sanrio ventures into India

By Inside Retail Asia May 2, 2012

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Sanrio, the creator of Hello Kitty, is venturing into apparel market in India.

The San Francisco-based designer and distributor of character-branded stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories will launch Hello Kitty apparel in association with Twenty One Fashion Studio as its sole licensee and distributor.

Twenty One Fashion Studio, a Sharaf Group venture, has held the Hello Kitty license for accessories, toys and games, footwear, watches, health and beauty, bed and bath, food and beverages, and furniture for the territory of India since 2011.

The new joint venture will enable Twenty One Fashion Studio to extend the offerings to apparel segment by introducing Hello Kitty apparel collection.

Hello Kitty is one of Japan’s unique cultural exports, and one of the ultimate symbols of kawaii, meaning ‘cute’ in Japanese. Three decades since she made her debut on a small coin purse in Japan, her popularity has multiplied exponentially from Japan to the world.

Hello Kitty apparel comprises various themes: Wall of fame, L’amour vintage, Arctic Fever, L’il Wild Things and Ethnicity.

The Wall of Fame collection includes shorts, hoods, jumpsuits and skirts. L’amour vintage is full of check prints, frilly skirts for girls and light denim washes. Artic Fever features synthetic fur hoodies, puffy jackets and draw string pants. L’il Wild Things has lots of colors and edgy styles for ‘wild little ones’. And Ethnicity has matching color combinations sticking to the pinks and purples for the princesses and classic blues for the brat and are introducing premium party collections.

To give local flavour to an international character, the joint venture will introduce Hello Kitty lehanga sets. The company also plans to introduce international Hello Kitty licensee’s products in various segments covering lifestyles for girls.

Sanrio was founded by Shintaro Tsuji in Tokyo in 1960. Over the years, Sanrio has created and licensed over 400 characters, for 50 years a global brand that is appealing to ages “0 to forever”, with offerings for the mass, the luxury markets and everything in between.