Word: cutely
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...Kawaii, an adjective usually mistranslated as simply "cute," has become much more than a word. It is a state of mind for Japanese teens, a modifier that means cool, bitchin', groovy, killer and I-love-it all rolled into one, then squared. For a clothing label trying to crack Asia's burgeoning teen fashion industry, business these days boils down to the quest for kawaii. Asian teenagers tend to wear today what Japanese teens wore a few minutes ago. And unlike the fashion industrial complex in the West, in which top designers and magazine editors dictate what's hot, Japan...
...What those Tokyo girls define as kawaii can be as cute as frilly pink shirts one day and as raunchy as a vinyl miniskirt the next. A year ago, the most popular items in Shibuya were Esperanza's light brown knee-high platform boots and black face paint?the so-called "gal" look. Now it's remade clothes, faded jeans and low-heeled pumps. Why the change? "I dressed gal style because it was popular. But everyone just got sick of it and besides, this new look is much more kawaii," says salesgirl Chie Sakakibara, 22. Hiroaki Morita, head...
...being young and fashion-savvy has given Takai and the other designers an edge over the competition?they can intuit, to some extent, what will be popular next. It's far more an art than a science. "When I'm in Los Angeles I buy things I think are cute in used-clothing stores and change the color, size, emblem, whatever, to fit Japanese teens. I just decide what to do case by case with whatever pops into my head," Takai explains. Even firms without young designers find the traditional drawing-board-to-mock-up-to-sample-to-store-shelf...
...Paul never worked with a female singer after he broke up with Ford), but there's still a pretty woman on-stage: Parrott, the Australian double-bassist. 'I want her to get damn tired,' the old spieler says. ''Cause I got somethin' in mind.' Now he's playing the cute old goat. 'I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole.' Parrott soldiers on, with exemplary forbearance, and Paul puts a note of hope into his mock-lechery: 'I don't have too much to offer, hon' just money.' He turns to the audience and offers the plaint...
...spent a lot of my adolescent afternoons trying out greeting cards, and even more time imagining intended recipients' reactions. I think I was hoping the perfect card would make it easier to tell the cute guy in chem lab why I was always spilling chemicals on myself when he walked by, or would help me overcome my stubborn streak and finally apologize to a once-close friend. And sometimes the cards worked their magic exactly as I'd hoped - one particularly successful Valentine's Day card paved the way to my first semi-serious relationship. (In ninth-grade terms...