Hello Kitty Tiaras

Tiara made of white gold, diamonds, pearls and rubies. It features floral and leaf elements, 7 strawberries studded with rubies, an open diamond heart in the center and a diamond Hello Kitty dangling from the center of the heart.

When I was young, I loved Hello Kitty. I didn't know much about her except she was a kitty, I loved cats and she was cute! That was enough for pre-teen me to want all the Hello Kitty things. On my birthday, my mom would take me to the local department store (Maison Blanche in the New Orleans area, no longer in business) and let me pick out some Hello Kitty things. Little notebooks, pens, tiny purses - there was all sorts of wonderful stuff!

I was delighted to find out that not only does a haute joaillerie Hello Kitty tiara exist - there have been *2* of them made!

The one pictured above was a collaboration between Sanrio and Mikimoto in honor of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary in 2014. There was only the one tiara made and it is not for sale. Of course it has pearls, since that's Mikimoto's thing, but it also has mother of pearl, onyx, diamonds and rubies. The setting is both white and yellow gold. The tiara was part of a collection of about 20 pieces and I've put a link down in the rabbit hole that shows off some of of the other pieces in the collection.

Close up of the central element of the Hello Tiara, a figure made of diamonds hanging from the center of a heart.

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In this close up of the central element, you can see how they cleverly placed the prongs holding the diamond to look like her whiskers. Such a clever little detail!

Side by side pictures of the strawberry lockets opened and revealing their portraits. The kitty on the left is wearing a silver crown, vest and bow tie and the kitty on the right has a small gold bow on its head.

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This tiara has a secret! Two of the strawberries are actually lockets and they open to reveal figures of Hello Kitty and her boyfriend, Daniel! (I never knew Hello Kitty had a boyfriend!) Daniel, on the left, has a silver crown, vest and bow tie. Hello Kitty, on the right, has a small gold bow on her head.

Small platinum Hello Kitty tiara. Heart-shaped frames are topped with round pearls. From the center of each heart dangles a Hello Kitty face charm. There are 2 rows of diamond swags at the bottom.

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I started off with the 40th anniversary tiara because it was so extra and, by now, you all should know how much I appreciate that! But Sanrio also created a tiara for Hello Kitty's 30th anniversary. It's made out of platinum, pearls and 167 pink, black and colorless diamonds. This one was actually available for purchase for, at the time, 3 million yen or about 30,000 USD.

Close up image of the central section of the platinum Hello Kitty tiara showing the detail on the face. The eyes are black diamonds and pink diamonds on the right ear make a bow.

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In this closeup image it's easier to see how the black diamonds were used for her eyes and the pink ones for her hair bow.

A view of the tiara from the top. It's placed in a case, resting on what looks like tissue paper. The outside of the case is orange. On the inside on a creamy satin is a printed image of Hello Kitty riding in a 2-wheeled contraption, pulled by a horse. She appears to be wearing the tiara. The tissue paper obscures part of the writing but you can see

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One last view of the tiara. You can see that it was pretty tiny. I don't think, at that price point, that it was made for children but I'm not sure how it would have looked just perched on top of the head. It would have looked kind of like Queen Victoria wearing that teeny Small Diamond Crown on top of her widow's cap. Maybe if you wore your hair in a bun, you could use it to wrap around the bun?

Photo of Queen Victoria wearing her small diamond crown.

Alexander Bassano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

image of a white rabbit popping out of his rabbit hole, looking around, and going back in. His rabbit hole is surrounded by grass and some carrots in the ground.

Hello Kitty's Origin: A Symbol of Peace Born from Wartime Tragedy - I did not realize until writing up this blog post how Hello Kitty came about. She came from sad beginnings but what her creator intended is so sweet!
Mikimoto
Pearls that purr: Hello Kitty meets Mikimoto in luxury jewellery collection - There's a slide show at the bottom of the page shwoing some of the other pieces in the collection.
Hello Kitty Minutiae - Blog active from 2007-2012 which is a great look at all the Hello Kitty things you could acquire!
Hello Kitty Hell - Blog active from 2006-2015. This one describes one man's "hell" - Hello Kitty taking over his life. The origin story of the blog is kind of sweet, actually, and that info is in the first blog post. This blog is another great look at all the different Hello Kitty stuff out there and, um, just a warning - down towards the bottom of the first page there are some NSFW items!
It's True - Hello Kitty Has a Boyfriend, But He Sparked a Controversy so Big That Sanrio Cancelled the Couple - A-ha! There's a reason I never realized Hello Kitty had a boyfriend!
Hello Kitty Wiki - All the deets on Hello Kitty!

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