Sometimes You Find a Great Notion
The co-founder of Hard Candy cosmetics has teamed up with an Italian digital artist to turn art into commerce at a new lifestyle brand company that produces sexy images on form-fitting T-shirts, Japanese paper fans and other products.
Pooneh Mohajer Arnold founded Tokidoki LLC 18 months ago with Simone Legno, who grew up in Rome and serves as creative director of the Los Angeles–based company. Mohajer Arnold and her husband, Ivan Arnold—who work with apparel clients such as designer Trina Turk at their e-commerce company, DamnBrand—handle sales, marketing and management of Tokidoki.
The first products in the Tokidoki line are slim-fitting T-shirts made of 100 percent ring-spun combed cotton. Wholesaling for $15 and bowing for Spring/Summer 2005, the men’s and women’s tees feature silkscreen images of babies wearing diapers printed with the Japanese flag and coy women wearing short bobs, tattoos and tiny dresses, among other sassy characters.
Arnold said 10 retailers, including London’s Rock and City of Industry, Calif.–based Metropark, are already carrying the tops. Tokidoki also will market stiff paper fans printed with similarly streetwise graphics at the wholesale price of $4. The company will display its wares at the forthcoming Pool and MAGIC International trade shows.
Mohajer Arnold said she envisions the art being splashed on items such as handbags and lip-gloss containers. “I hadn’t been so passionate about something since Hard Candy,” said Mohajer Arnold, who started the cosmetics company in 1995 with her younger sister, Dineh. They sold the business to French fashion conglomerate LVMH Moeuml;t Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 1999 for an undisclosed sum.
Legno said he aims to mix opposites in his art: for example, evil and cuteness, adult and childish themes, and Western and Asian elements. As for the company’s name, which means “sometimes” in Japanese, he said, “Everyone is waiting for the times and moments to fulfill their dreams.”
For more information, call (213) 892- 0392. —Khanh T.L. Tran
