Cute

A powerful Japanese cultural phenomenon, Cute (or ‘Kawaii’, meaning childlike) first emerged in the 1970s and was characterized by a playful aesthetic, often in shades of cherry-blossom pink, that was marketed by many manufacturers across a wide range of goods and services. One of the best-known exponents of Cute was the Sanrio company's Hello Kitty, a cartoon-like cat whose branded image was applied to all kinds of consumer products, from children's toys to credit cards and mobile phones. After a rather romantic ‘look’ in the 1980s ‘Cute’ took on a more humorous edge in the 1990s. After a slight ebbing of its popularity, it then took on a strong Retro or Super-Cute (‘Chou-Kawaii’) dimension, perhaps on account of Cute's first generation of consumers becoming teenagers and young adults seeking to harness earlier memories to their young adult lives, albeit with a sense of irony or an appreciation of kitsch. Although voraciously consumed by South East Asian teenagers it also exerted a considerable impact on Western youth culture. The Cute cult was widely covered in style magazines such as the Face or experienced more directly through the Japanese rock band Shonen Knife, a support act for Nirvana. Shonen Knife projected a little girl image sustained by lyrics about jellybeans and Barbie dolls. Blended with the potent 1990s Japanese High-School Girl (‘joshi kosai’) brand, such an aesthetic influenced the ‘baby doll’ dress and Doc Martens boots look known as the ‘Riot Grrls’.