Asia's most famous cat celebrates her 35th birthday this November. It's not a real cat, of course, but the iconic Hello Kitty brand from the Sanrio Company. And to mark her birthday, she's going back to her British roots with a new tartan collection, and a checkered-pink series.
Hello Kitty dressed in Scottish tartan and checkered-pink got an early promotion in the British embassy in Toyko, before the two new collections hit the stores' shelves in September.
Yuko Yamaguchi, the cute cat's designer since 1980, said the British capital was chosen as the feline's home because London was the place Japanese girls admired in the 1970s.
Since her 1974 debut, Kitty has spawned a massive global industry with sales of some 50-thousand Kitty products in 70 nations, including dolls, clothes, accessories and homeware.