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Kattie Rose stared at her reflection in the window and carefully combed the pink and purple bangs of her wig with a tiny green comb. A poufy, cotton-candy pink dress and white thigh-highs printed with pink hearts topped off the outfit, and a small yellow teacup with Hello Kitty “floating” in fake bubbles was nestled between the strands of her wig.
“You can be individual and you don’t have to be the cookie-cutter American,” Kattie said. “If you want to wear a lollipop, it’s not a crime.”
Kattie is a 17-year-old artist from Rio Rancho who makes everything from lollipop necklaces and rings to cell-phone cases. She said she was first exposed to fashion by looking at her older sisters’ magazines, but she couldn’t find any jewelry to go with the outlandish clothes featured on their pages. With this motive, she decided to make jewelry of her own.
She began selling her jewelry and accessory line, Kittywood Designs, online, garnering a fan base through her blog, Facebook and Tumblr pages.
“Name a country and she’s sold jewelry there … she makes more money than most adults do,” her mother Rebecca Rose said.
Kattie said her style is Japanese-inspired, but she puts her own unique spin on everything she makes. She said she hopes her business can help fund her dream of going to a fashion school in Japan. She owns five wigs, and said she never leaves the house without wearing one. She said she cut off her long hair for an easier wig fit.
“My style is fun and whimsical; not many people will take a cake and put it on their head,” she said.
Kattie’s jewelry is made of various media, including resin, clay and repurposed figurines such as Hello Kitty and Tokidoki.
“She is making the world a cuter place,” Kattie’s friend Kayla Gonzales said. “She’s working as hard as she can to make people’s lives sweeter and cuter.”
Rebecca said Kattie doesn’t have a separate studio, but uses the family house to make her jewelry.
“My kitchen looks like a bakery for lollipop necklaces,” Rebecca said.
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Kattie said Japanese fashion cultures such as Lolita have strict guidelines, whereas she is more experimental. Kattie said that her version is more playful, dolly and “little-girly.”
Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry serve as her inspiration, she said, but she also likes more obscure pop-culture icons such as Japanese artist Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
In a YouTube video with more than 30 million views, Pamyu Pamyu dances in front of a pile of neon toys, floating pieces of toast and a beating, anatomically correct heart. At one point, she slaps her butt and a stream of colors erupts from it.
Kattie said people’s reactions to her style choices are varied. As people pass by her on the street, they often turn and stare.
“Some people have the urge to yell ‘Little Bo Peep,’” Kattie said. “Sometimes people are embarrassed by me.”
Kattie said other kids in public school called her names because of the way she dressed, so she decided to finish her schooling at home.
She said she wears these attention-grabbing clothes and accessories all the time.
“It’s a lifestyle,” she said. “You have to have thick skin and lots of guts to wear this.”
Gonzales said Kattie didn’t attend school for a year because of an illness, and Kattie said she doesn’t have many friends; she spends most of her time with her family.
Kattie said that when she was 15, Kittywood Designs was first featured in a fashion show.
“When she did her first show, no one looked like her,” Rebecca said. “I think there are others in the community who would say that she made it cool to do this.”
Her mom said she fully supports Kattie in her fashion endeavors.
“As a mother, it could be worse,” Rebecca said. “People are starting to evolve into her style.”
