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Published every other week in Japan, Cutie is a free-spirited fashion magazine for any girl with an ounce of independent style. Page after page of crazy get-ups worn by prepubescent Kahimi Karie-esque girls leave anyone longing for the guts to be able to wear the outfits. A typical ensemble seen on a Cutie page might entail leg warmers layered over pants, topped with a shirt with only one arm, four watches wrapped around a bicep and finished off with a nice pair of platform clogs. You might call this a bad case of fashion victimization, but in Cutie it just seems to work. American girls could take an idea or two from each page to spice up their wardrobes.
Occasional features on room layouts, school supplies or handbags will make you long to live in Tokyo. The kitsch factor runs high throughout, with spotlights on hip accessories and revived memorabilia. Snoopy is a popular motif, showing up on clothing, lunch boxes, as a figurine and more. Simple generic happy Japanese characters (smiling raindrops, for example) also frequent the pages.
Sadly, as you might expect, the magazine is entirely in Japanese and some of the how-to's (like turning a teddy bear into a baseball cap) are a bit useless, as are the comics featured in each issue. A growing music section has featured artists such as Bis and Chocolat, but who knows if they're really talking about the music?
Cutie can be found at Tower Magazines and at Japanese bookstores.
Reviewed by Heidi Anne-Noel
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