Scenes From the Hello Kitty Convention in Los Angeles

Red carpets and celebrities are a dime a dozen in L.A., but this past weekend the city feted an icon unlike any other. Hello Kitty, who turns 40 this year, was the star of a suite of events that began on Wednesday with the opening of the first annual Hello Kitty Convention. The carnival-meets-trade fair drew more than 26,000 Sanrio disciples dressed to the nines, plus several stars from the Nickelodeon set and the superfan Katy Perry, to MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo. Highlights included musical performances, scholarly panels on licensing and globalization, live appearances and, last but not least, shopping, while some of the strangest sights included watching Kitty christen the Friendship Village pop-up shop as she bought a cartload of merchandise featuring herself, and the tattoo parlor that offered attendees a spectrum of free, permanent body art (Perry partook). The photographer Jacqueline DiMilia captured the style scene in and around the show; for those craving a closer look, the companion exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum next door, “Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty,” is on view through April 26 of next year.