Always Kitty: Sanrio Luxe opens in GB5

Tita Virgie Ramos is kind of my idol. She wears throwaway chic like Issey and Marni, Comme and Yohji. She travels in style, speaks some Nihongo, is generous in words and in kind. She appreciates cuteness in all forms and hasn’t outgrown Hello Kitty, after all these years.

Her energy amazes me.

Sometime last month, I bumped into her at Greenbelt 5, where she invited me to sneak a peek at the Sanrio Luxe store she’s opening on level two this September.

Hers is only the second Sanrio Luxe store in the world, the first having opened in New York’s Times Square late last year.

Having let go of all the Gift Gate stores to franchisees, Tita Virgie was happy to focus on her very successful lucrative Swatch stores, and now, the new baby she is opening this month.

Sanrio Luxe was seven months in the making — having hired the scrupulous “genius in motion” Ed Calma to design her space.

When Tita Virgie was offered to open the first Sanrio Luxe store one and a half years ago, she was reluctant and a bit concerned about the world economy and enjoying her long Tokyo holidays. On one of those holidays, Tita Virgie agreed to give in to Sanrio owner and Tita Virgie’s Best Friend Forever (BFF), Mr. Kunihiko Tsuji who wanted to create a gorgeous, well-managed Sanrio Luxe store in the Philippines! And Mr. Tsuji was so sure “Ramos san” would deliver. Mr. Tsuji assured her that she would be given free rein to do it the way she wanted. With that, Sanrio Japan gave Ramos san their full blessing and confidence and did not get in the way of the design.

Tita Virgie asked architect Ed Calma to do it. She described her vision as: “Hello Kitty, the World’s Billion-Dollar Feline Phenomenon in a World According to Ed Calma.”

Knowing Calma, you can expect stark, minimal elements, but you can also expect the unexpected. Say goodbye to pink and red and colors usually associated with Hello Kitty. This Sanrio Luxe is white, white, and white, with color-changing LED lights, stylish black, white and gold wallpaper, quirky Hello Kitty mirrors, and lots and lots of glass.

I’ve had an insider’s pleasure to drop in from time to time and look behind the scenes to watch this store come to life. From a bare retail space, I’ve seen merchandise gradually come in from boxes and placed onto the shelves.

Having never outgrown Kitty myself, this feels like a dream. I spy some Muji-looking canvas bags and ask Tita if I can already shop.

“Not yet. You’ll have to wait till opening,” she laughs.

As a hardcore Kitty fan, I am not disappointed. Every time I shop or travel, I always have to enter a Sanrio store and you have to just leave me alone. For like two hours. After all these years I’m no longer interested in the kiddie stuff. I have enough stationery to last me a decade. I’m always on the lookout for something I have never seen and don’t own.

Sanrio Luxe promises to offer those things you don’t already have, including Japan exclusives and all the collabs. Think Hello Kitty x Anteprima, MAC, Tokidoki, Momoberry, Asics, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tarina Tarantino, and more.

I’m hoping for some Hello Kitty x Atmos x Porter, Undercover, Crystal Ball, and all that. With Tita Virgie’s connections, you can be sure she has access to them.

Thirty years ago, Virgie Ramos had a dream to have a Hello Kitty in every home, and that dream has come true.

As a young mother in her 20s, she was on a holiday with her in-laws in Tokyo when they walked into a Sanrio store on Ginza, packed floor to ceiling with Hello Kitty goods.

She had never seen anything like it. She fell in love. She also bought tons of it.

The entrepreneur in her made a plan to bring it to Manila and worked on it, flying back and forth to talk to the Tsuji family in Japan.

Tita Virgie says there were other Filipino groups vying for it, but something in her made the Japanese award Ramos san the first ever and only country master license agreement in the world.

In 1979, she opened a Sanrio corner in her Book Stop store in front of the newly opened Shoppesville mall in Greenhills. I remember climbing up a makeshift ladder to enter the still unfinished store every Sunday with my parents. My dad would buy books; my sister and I bought Sanrio. This started my love affair with the brand.

Back in the day when there was no texting or Internet, the brand took off by word of mouth. Every girl in my school wished for Hello Kitty anything.

Thirty years later, the love for Kitty and Sanrio still runs through my veins. I’ve found that Tita Virgie and I speak the same language. When she says Chococat, Cinnamoroll, Vivitix, or Nerds, I know exactly what she’s saying. Her youthfulness inspires me. She amazes me.