Word: toye
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...favorites: Yamamoto, Armani, Ferré, Miyake. One also has one's diversions (Lagerfeld, Montana), one's objects of respectful admiration (Saint Laurent, Kenzo, Blass, the knits of Sonia Rykiel that move over the body like a Slinky toy) and one's comers (Vivienne Westwood or the Tunisian-born Azzedine Alaïa, whose clinging, deep-dish dresses could make even a mermaid look like Rita Hayworth in Gilda). But one also and ultimately has befuddlement, an impression of satiation that dwindles only gradually. Ellin Saltzman, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, points out very sensibly that "fashion...
Unlike the Pet Rock, which insulted the intelligence, and Rubik's Cube, which defied it, a big new hit on the toy scene tickles the imagination and captivates the eye. The Wacky WallWalker, as it is called, is a sticky, rubber, eight-legged object that exists to be thrown at a wall or window, on which it alights, shudders, flips, turns, wriggles and lurches downward, shimmying like a pixilated octopus...
...Japanese-born Ken Hakuta, 33, exclusive U.S. distributor for the toy, the WallWalker has other charms. It has already made him a millionaire several times over. The walk to riches began last November, when Hakuta's parents in Tokyo sent several of the widgets to his 3½-year-old son Kenzo, in Washington. Entrepreneur Hakuta, who has an M.B.A. from Harvard and runs a Washington-based import-export firm called Tradex, was immediately smitten with the toy and arranged to have it shipped to the U.S. He says: "I figured it might be something that could put humor...
Arriving at some U.S. toy counters in time for Christmas, WallWalker put fun into a lot of kids' stockings and profits into Hakuta's account. The toy, called Tako (for octopus) in Japan, costs about 20? to make. Hakuta buys them for 30? to 35? each, packages and airfreights them to the U.S., pays the import duty (12.3%) and sells to wholesalers or retail stores for between 70? and 80?. Thus he averages a 40? profit on each toy. So far, Hakuta has spent nothing on advertising or promotion. "It just goes to show...
Father sits, catatonic, beside the refrigerator or guzzles hooch that he hides inside a big toy duck. Mother bitterly complains that she has sacrificed a literary career to have a family. A baby sitter reads aloud a parody of Mommie Dearest. A German shepherd eats an infant whole and barks for more. Is it any wonder that this family's little girl (or boy: the parents are too polite to peek) grows up confused...