Five Studio Ghibli anime classics inspire cute and creative fashion items.
Studio Ghibli’s anime tend to have an active heroine at their center, someone who’s ready to spring into action when she’s needed. When you’re springing into action, though, you don’t want to have your hair in your face, do you?
So perhaps it’s no coincidence that a number of Studio Ghibli’s leads wear some sort of hair accessory, and those are the inspiration behind a number of fashion items from Ghibli specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku.
Starting things off is the Kiki’s Delivery Service Ribbon Hair Band, modeled after the ribbon sported by the young witch in her anime adventures.
The size is toned down to make it more practical for use here in the real world, and it’s also made of a more durable terrycloth-like fabric with an elastic band, so you can just slip it on and off without the hassle of retying it each time.
Black cat Jiji makes an appearance on the fabric, and Kiki herself shows up with an encouraging message on the inner side of the band.
Moving on to another classic anime and heroine, we come to the Castle in the Sky/Laputa’s Sheeta.
As with Kiki’s ribbon, Sheeta’s hairband gets a few extra aesthetic touches, with the Laputa royal crest and her full birth name, Lusheeta Toel Ul Laputa, written on it.
Switching gears, the Princess Mononoke hair clip isn’t based on a piece of any of the characters’ costumes, but on a character.
The clip takes the form of the mountain dogs/wolves that raised monster princess San, such as Moro, her adoptive mother, with the shimmery way the material catches the light evocative of the creatures’ thick coats.
Rounding out the collection are a pair of scrunchies, the first for Arrietty and shaped to evoke memories of the clothespin the micro-sized character wears as a hair clip.
▼ You can spot Arrietty embroidered on the material.
And last, the Howl’s Moving Castle scrunchie comes courtesy of flame spirit Calcifer.
This one is the most abstract design, but aside from the cute Calcifer-shaped charm…
…the pink pattern on the fabric makes it look like you’ve got a bunch of flames holding your hair in place.
The Calcifer scrunchie is the lowest-priced, at 1,650 yen (US$10.65), with the Arrietty scrunchie 1,870, Sheeta hairband 2,200, mountain dog clip 2,530, and Kiki hairband 2,640. All five hair accessories have recently been restocked and are available through the Donguri Kyowakoku online store (Kiki here, Sheeta here, Princess Mononoke here, Arrietty here, and Calcifer here), and should work perfectly for keeping your hair out of the way while you’re eating one of McDonald’s Japan’s new Kiki’s Delivery Service burgers.
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Dongur Kyowakoku (1, 2)
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Studio Ghibli (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
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