Tell us who you are:
I am Shorty Hoshino, also known under the alias of Chibi. I’m a full time nurs­ing stu­dent, friend, daugh­ter, girl­friend, and a part time crafter and Lolita fash­ion­ista.

How did you get into Lolita and where did it lead you?
I’ve always liked Lolita dur­ing high school, but never thought about dress­ing up myself. I thought those dresses were only obtain­able in Japan. And of course, no money, no drive to really own one, so I liked the fash­ion from afar on and off. Later on after some time in col­lege, I grew fond of the Hime-Gyaru fash­ion and started pam­per­ing myself with aes­thetic cloth­ing of a princess feel. Even though I loved the fash­ion, I felt some­thing was still miss­ing inside of me. My sis­ter shop from long ago had her shop reviewed by the blog­ger Happiimilk/Sarah, and I just kept on read­ing her blog. See­ing how she was start­ing off Lolita, it was pretty inter­est­ing and intrigued me to stick to her blog. I have already known about the drama about some loli­tas being against many weird things (i.e. weight, skin color, etc), but see­ing Sarah’s blog gave a spark to my life and into the frills I have been mean­ing to express myself in. Ever since I actively dressed in Lolita fash­ion, I’ve become hap­pier and con­fi­dent in what­ever I’m wear­ing.   

What inspires your drive for the fash­ion?
Sarah was the start, hee­hee. What inspires my drive for the fash­ion is see­ing other loli­tas hav­ing love for the fash­ion, regard­less if they’re wear­ing brand, replica, off­brand, vin­tage, or hand­made. It makes me very happy see­ing ladies and gen­tle­men enjoy­ing the fash­ion and shar­ing their coords with each other. I’ve met many great loli­tas at meets and as cus­tomers, and they make me love the fash­ion even more.

What is your favorite brand and why?
My favorite brand would have to be Angelic Pretty. I can­not leave the cute­ness! If you know me per­son­ally, I can­not quiet down when I’m at a  Japan­ese cutesy gift store nor San­rio; I love the soft col­ors and their princess motto.  I also like look­ing at other brands as they have really awe­some vari­eties! But, I must give BIG kudos to those who hand­made their dresses and still pull off a beau­ti­ful coor­di­na­tion and sil­hou­ette. I have great admi­ra­tion for those loli­tas *salutes*

What’s the name of your busi­ness?
My busi­ness is called “Imper­fect Kawaii” , and on Etsy known as Princess­Chibi. It is a two per­son oper­ated busi­ness (the other per­son is Spazzy, my boyfriend and helper ). We are an under­ground small busi­ness and we cater hand­made charms, acces­sories, deco­den phones and gad­gets, and always wel­com­ing any com­mis­sions to our best attempts Many of our items are one of a kind~

What inspires your designs?
The cus­tomers~ For charms and deco­den cus­toms, I let the cus­tomer tell me their ideas and we work together to cre­ate some­thing amaz­ing, though with my skills it can come out imper­fect. When I have free time, I like to make charms of what­ever is on my mind, what I’m feel­ing, or crav­ing, no mat­ter how crazy it is or will look! What makes me push myself a lit­tle more to try to per­fect a cus­tom order, is the fact that most of my cus­tomers are request­ing to give as a gift to some­one else~ I love the share and care of oth­ers There’s so many times that there have been cus­tomers that have melt my heart.

Can you tell us what lead you to design?
My best friends from high school♥ In 2009, Valentine’s Day was com­ing up and major­ity of my best friends were sin­gle I wanted them to know they are loved as well, so I kept think­ing of how to show it and have them know that for­ever. That time I was into King­dom Hearts and I decided to make paopu cell phone charms! I was not the first to do this (I looked at DeviantArt before hand), but I thought it was a good idea, and I’ve added a lit­tle some­thing else to make it dif­fer­ent. I dis­trib­ute them to my friends and they loved it and told me I should make more and other stuff! I’ve sold the left over pao­pus since I made quite a lot and local cus­tomers encour­aged me to cre­ate more clay items and start a small busi­ness. Because of their faith in me, Imper­fect Kawaii was only for locals and then grew to become an online shop. As days go by, we get amaz­ing cus­tomers and tend to bond with them and that keeps us going as well♥

Any advice for loli-newbies or first time loli-oriented busi­ness own­ers?
For loli-newbies, read Sarah’s blog. It will guide you well enough as it has for me loli-oriented busi­ness own­ers, be patient! It can be a rough start, but you’ll get there~ Just put you and your shop out there and cus­tomers who love your work will come.

There you have it, ladies. Chibi is a dear friend of mine and vol­un­teered to be inter­viewed as a local busi­ness owner in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. This post was unspon­sored and these opin­ions are entirely her own. Please feel free to click the links to her shop and pur­chase any of her super cute goods!