![]() Paul Frank, 33, started making wallets and bags for his friends in his Huntington Beach bedroom in the early ‘90s, and established Paul Frank Industries in Costa Mesa in 1995. Last year, the company’s sales exceeded $1.2 billion. Sanrio wares, which include just about every logo-friendly object under the sun ranging from vacuum cleaners to steering wheel covers, are also available in toy stores and at national chains. The company has opened 120 Sanrio boutiques in the U.S., including shops at the Beverly Center, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and Horton Plaza in San Diego. Sanrio has created hundreds of other characters over the years, including Badtz-Maru, a penguin with attitude, and Pochacco, a sports-minded pup with a weakness for ice cream, but none with the appeal of the kitten. ![]() Its president and CEO, Shintaro Tsuji, founded the company in 1960 based on the concept that a small gift can bring a big smile to a child. Hello Kitty is the 26-year-old flagship character of Sanrio, the Japanese gift and accessory company. A T-shirt shows a manly Julius-as-James Dean working on the engine of his pink vintage car-with custom flaming on the side-and Hello Kitty sticking her head out the window. In another Hello Kitty and Julius are couple-skating, legs thrust out behind them like little Olympians. In one drawing, Julius-the Italian stallion-rides round town on a motorbike, Hello Kitty clinging girlishly to his waist. They are just friends,” stresses Laura Takaragawa, license marketing and sales manager for Sanrio.) But a preseason peek at the pop-icons at play shows cat and monkey flirting and having a hoot. Final designs are still being hashed out. ![]() The collection will cost between $25 and $75. The collection will include shoulder bags, CD wallets, a coin purse and T-shirts, with Hello Kitty and Julius the Monkey kickin’ it around town. “Paul Frank’s Hello Kitty Collection” is slated to appear in stores in the spring. In an interspecies fashion deal targeting connoisseurs of cute, Sanrio’s fashionable feline is hooking up with Paul Frank’s snazzy simian to launch a special collection of limited-edition accessory items. The two will appear in public for the first time in the spring. But with a team of professionals standing by, things have worked out. There have been some rough patches, as there are at the start of any new relationship, and there have been compromises, about the proper role of cat, and monkey. But she liked the way he made people smile. She liked his style, the way he frolicked on the chests of the young and hip. Hello Kitty spotted Julius the Monkey first.
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