Is there anything cuter than Hello Kitty?

I think not.

This weekend was the first-ever Hello Kitty Conference, a celebration of the supercute cartoon timed to coincide with her 40th birthday. As you can imagine, cuteness abounded.

Although I’m not a Hello Kitty superfan or anything, I did have quite a bit of Hello Kitty and Keroppi stuff in high school, and am still sad that my awesome Monkichi wallet was stolen in 1997. So, when I heard that Hello Kitty Con was happening in L.A., I immediately bought tickets for Isabel and I.

The event included an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, which was really awesome. They had all sorts of Hello Kitty-inspired art, and a bunch of Hello Kitty merchandise on display — including the first-ever Hello Kitty product, a coin purse.

Sadly, all the panels (on subjects like Hello Kitty cupcake decorating and Hello Kitty nail art!) were sold out by the time we figured out that Hello Kitty Con was real and bought our tickets, but there was still a lot to see.

Obviously, Hello Kitty Con called for a crazy outfit, and I decided to go all out.

My outfit was tame compared to some of the other costumes, though.

Aside from the art exhibit, the conference itself was a little disappointing. We spent a LOT of time waiting in really long lines, only to get to the end and realize we had been waiting in line to wait in line.

The food truck line was too long to deal with, so we didn’t eat anything (although there were apparently Hello Kitty doughnuts available). We also weren’t able to get into the “pop-up shop,” which is where they were selling the conference-exclusive items. A woman behind us in the (also very long) line for the “supermarket” (where most of the vendors were) told us she had waited two hours to get into the pop-up shop, after waiting an hour to get into the conference.

I was also upset that none of the other characters were represented at the con. Obviously Hello Kitty was the star, but I thought they would at least have some merchandise available with the other characters on it.

 

But despite the negatives, we still had a fun time and enjoyed seeing the cuteness explosion. I’ll just have to wait until the Hello Kitty Cafe opens for real to get a Hello Kitty doughnut.

My outfit: Dress: Forever 21, Sweater: J.Crew (similar), Leggings: Sanrio, Boots: Dr. Martens (similar), Glasses: Sanrio, Necklace: Target (sold out), Rings and Hello Kitty hair bands: Claire’s, Bracelets: Target (sold out) and very old, Hair chalk: Nordstrom (sold out), Bag: Kate Spade (old), Patch: Purchased in Afghanistan