TokiDoki

Tokidoki is the latest cute Japanese-girly thing to hit the USA. But wait - Tokidoki is not Japanese. This brand, based in Los Angeles, is the creation of Italian designer Simone Legno, who is a self-professed Japanophile. (Yes, that appears to be the colors of the Italian flag on the butt of the girl in the fourth image above.) He's teamed up with LeSportsac to make a line of handbags, much like Gwen Stefani did when she was launching L.A.M.B.

I admit that the bags, decorated with Legno's cartoon critters are cute. But cute critters have been done and done better by any number of artists and toy makers - Takashi Murakami, Martin Cendreda, and Patrick Ma of Rocketworld, among many others.

I don't particularly like Simone Legno's images of Japanese women, or Japanese women characters, either. They're just a little too annoying, with their "Asian" eyes represented with just a slanted line (Are they open? Are they closed? Do Asian women have, um, actual eyeballs, complete with pupils and irises? I know I do). I'm getting quite f*ing sick of seeing Asian women represented in such boring, predictable ways - the endless geisha imagery, the young/slender/shallow/fashion-crazed stereotype, or the "Me So Horny", sexually available prostitute thing... yawn... it's tired. I'm much more interested in the ways that actual Asian women artists and designers imagine and envision Asian women. Call me crazy.

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The designer himself is coming to Nordstrom, San Francisco in just a few weeks. Perhaps I could go, and plant my leather pride flag on HIS butt.