Pero meets Hello Kitty, and it’s a match made in gingham

In HELLO Pero, childhood whimsy and Indian handmade traditions sit side by side like old friends with a collection that’s “100 per cent Pero and 100 per cent Hello Kitty,” Sanrio’s beloved character

We enter the Pero x Hello Kitty world wide-eyed, ready not just to stare, but to feel. At Good Earth's Raghuvanshi Mills address in Mumbai, the outside fades away. A plushie pool beckons, filled with cushioned apples - some in gingham, others like fruit from a cartoon dream. We smile before realising it, tiptoeing through a corner of our childhood we didn't know we missed.

For one week, the store's first floor became a house of kawaii - a celebration of the cuteness that Hello Kitty defines. HELLO Pero transformed the space with candy-striped walls and more than 70 boxes of plushie props: 2,000 apples and over 1,200 figurines. "We've never changed the space so completely for a collaboration, but with Pero, it felt right," says Ambika Jain, head of creative design at Good Earth. Even the wire sleeve of the aqua chandelier near the stairway was redone to match the red-and-white theme. "It's a double-height ceiling, and changing that one element took over five hours. But that's the kind of detail we wanted to get right."

Hello Kitty becomes a textile story by Péro: a real-life Kitty in costume handing out hugs and heart-hands in a pool of plushies and cushioned apples dressed in gingham, polka dots, and stripes

Candy-cane stripes draw your gaze forward like a soft theatre curtain. Mannequins wear playful, finely detailed pieces. Cloth bows climb the walls, while a doodle wall invites kids and adults to scribble. One prompt reads: How many apples tall are you? (As legend goes, Hello Kitty is five apples tall and weighs three.) The aim isn't to impress, but to connect. "It's all about creating a world that brings people joy and invites them to let go," says designer Aneeth Arora. "We believe everyone has a child within them, and it's important to keep that alive."

Arora is fashion's chief agitator for fun, a gleeful raspberry-blower at its orthodoxies. A seer or showman? Either way, she's firmly on the expressive side. "I don't intellectualise it," she says. "I think like a child. Children make their own worlds and do what they want. That's how I approach design. It's instinctive."

Her earliest Hello Kitty memory? A school water bottle. "I remember seeing her on lunch boxes, pencil cases, school bags... That was my only association growing up." During the pandemic, she watched The Toys That Made Us on Netflix. "One episode talked about Sanrio's motto: Small gift, big smile. That line stayed with me. It resonated with what we try to do at Pero too."

When Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the feline-faced favourite, reached out in 2024 to mark Hello Kitty's 50th anniversary, the timing felt serendipitous. Pero was celebrating its own 15th year. The collaboration led to HELLO Pero, a 90-piece collection of outfits and accessories, unveiled at an offsite presentation on Barakhamba Road in Delhi. By then, Arora had already begun collecting vintage Hello Kitty memorabilia - over 50 pieces, some dating back to 1982. Her finds were displayed alongside archival treasures from Sanrio, forming a quiet bridge between two brands built on imagination and craft.

At HELLO Péro, even the hearts came dressed - in gingham, bows, and the bubble-headed Hello Kitty, part of an immersive campaign showcase marking the fashion brand's collaboration with Sanrio

HELLO Pero Spring/Summer 2025 isn't nostalgia for its own sake. It amps up Hello Kitty's feel-good techno-pop character with Pero's long-standing commitment to the handmade, brought together in a shared language the brand calls Cottage Core Kawaii. Kitty's favourite things - apples, cherries, cupcakes, milk cartons - appear throughout, drawn through the loom with care, then let loose into the world again. Familiar, but changed.

There's a cartoonish, candied quality to the collection of shirts, dresses, skirts, and jackets. It's an unrepentant send-up of seriousness. Buttons meander off-centre. Trimmings dangle like charms from a child's treasure chest. One gingham shirt keeps it classic in front, while the back features a full beadwork portrait of the girl we all remember - not quite a cat, not quite cartoon. Another piece hides her outline in negative space, woven into jamdani. Her name appears elsewhere too, as cutwork on collars or drifting across printed cotton.

Prints brim with personality: ditsy florals, rose trellises, garden bouquets, and nautical stripes. Embellishments include beadwork, fabric origami, applique, patchwork, tassels, crochet, and custom wooden buttons. The collection also taps into India's textile heritage, featuring Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, Mashru from Gujarat, gabardine and taffeta silks from the South, floral brocades from Banaras, and West Bengal's Jamdani. A collaboration with Afghan refugee women brings traditional crochet into a new context.

"Sanrio sent us plushies, and we dressed them," Arora adds. "Each one came with a little tag that read ‘Pero loves Hello Kitty'." The apples were made in-studio using leftover fabric, in five sizes and ten different textiles. "In a way, our entire 300-person team got introduced to a cultural icon, even if they hadn't grown up with her. Some of them started calling her ‘Hello Tikki'," she laughs. "They'd say things like ‘Hello Tikki ka bow lag gaya' and treat her like a person."

The showcase has travelled from Delhi and Salone del Mobile Milan to Ahmedabad and Mumbai, with Hyderabad next. "It's not just about viewing the clothes," Arora adds. "It's about stepping into that world and taking a piece of it home."

So, what's next? Arora hints at something entirely different. "Maybe we'll start with an all-white collection. That could be a good beginning." She's also been quietly working on a home line comprising quilts, rugs, and towels, already retailing overseas. "Over there, it's a business exercise. You show the product, take orders, and sell it. But here, I want to do it differently."

She's holding out to launch it in a way that feels immersive. "I don't want it to look like regular home textiles. I'd rather show it as an experience… something that feels more like an installation than a display. Maybe it's better described as art."