“Here, I’ll show you.” Simone Legno, Tokidoki’s creative director, whipped out his phone and swiped to a drawing of a pink, indigo and blue Mazinger Z robot that he had sketched when he was four years old.

 

“We love that you were already into pink,” we said.

 

“I’ve always loved pink, yeah,” he quipped.

 

Simone has come a long way from being the little boy in Rome who drew with chewed and broken pencils. His iconic brand, Tokidoki (which means “sometimes” in Japanese), continues to have a cult following and his cute characters can be seen all over the world–on people’s clothes, skate decks, toys, jewelry, accessories and stationery.

 

The brand has collaborated with numerous people and brands including Karl Lagerfeld, the Guggenheim Museum, Levi’s, Hello Kitty, Sephora, Barbie, Canon, the Black Eyed Peas, Marvel and more.

 

We were interviewing Simone at Greenbelt 5, just minutes before the launch of his latest collaboration with American brand LeSportsac, the result of which are two fun and colorful collections of bags.

 

The Fall collection highlights Palette, a white leopard created by Simone, while Giramondo, the travel-inspired Winter print, showcases Tokidoki’s iconic characters on stamps from different countries including the Philippines (our adorable stamp features mohawked Maxx riding a jeepney and a cute mango wearing red and blue boxing gloves).

 

“It has always been LeSportsac’s pleasure to have a collaboration with Simone. It was such a hit the first time, he really nailed it. It sold out. The Fall collection is out now and the Winter collection is coming to stores in a couple of weeks, just in time for Christmas,” said April Reyes, merchandising group manager for Stores Specialists Inc., LeSportsac’s exclusive distributor in the Philippines.

 

She added: “Simone has a huge following in Manila and it’s good to know that the fan base of Tokidoki is from young to old. It’s a pleasure for us to have him here. He’s a very nice guy. We really love this guy.”

 

Simone, who has visited the country before, said, “I’m very excited because I always have such huge support from the Philippines. In the US, the No. 1 community that supports Tokidoki is the American-Filipinos so I really appreciate it. I’m very happy to be here. Every time I come, I am always welcomed by the kindness of the people and how much they appreciate my work.”

 

Some of Simone’s fans arrived early, hours before his signing event at Greenbelt 5. One of them, Karen Viray, has been a fan since 2008. She was wearing Tokidoki leggings and was carrying a Tokidoki bag and phone case. “I really love the colors, the artwork, his designs. I really buy his stuff, I order stuff from the US. I saw on Instagram that Simone was coming here because I follow him, his brand and other Tokidoki-related accounts. I’m so excited to meet him.”

 

To celebrate LeSportsac’s collaboration with Tokidoki, members of the media were given the chance to create works of art with Simone. He said, “I will make a simple outline of my characters and it will be a collaboration between us. You can change it as much as you want. I’m very interested to see which of you can have different color palettes, a different way of seeing things.”

 

“You want any character in particular?” he asked when it was our turn.

 

“Sandy,” we said, thinking of the pink-haired girl from Tokidoki’s popular Cactus Friends line.

 

He dipped a paintbrush in black paint and drew Sandy quickly, using bold strokes.

 

“Are we supposed to stick to your colors?” we asked.

 

“No,” Simone said. “I want to see funky, crazy stuff, deforming, adding characters around, in the background, over, putting moustache.”

 

An hour or so later, our fingers were stained with paint and we had our version of Sandy: moustache-free but rainbow-haired, with her green cactus suit covered with colorful thorns.

 

It was our taste of Tokidoki’s colorful world, one that is difficult to leave behind.

 

Do you remember your first artwork?

 

I’m like people who find historic things… I found my graffiti under the table at home. As a little boy, I would enter the wardrobe where my mom stores covers and I’d draw on the wall. I have sketches from when I was four, they were already pretty interesting. In kindergarten, my teacher was putting my drawings on the walls.

 

That’s so cool. Does your mom still have them?

 

Not everything but, thanks to mom, she put them together and I took a few and brought them to LA and scanned them.

 

That’s the first time I went to Japan but I’ve loved it since I was a little boy. In the ’80s, Italy was invaded by Japanese pop culture. I grew up watching animé. And it wasn’t just about the characters, they were showing the Japanese lifestyle and, imagine, this was the pre-Internet era, and you see people eating with chopsticks, rice bowls, doors that open like this, cherry blossoms, bullet trains, school uniforms–those kinds of things were so fascinating for me as a little boy.

 

You’ve had so many collaborations over the years. Why did you decide to reunite with LeSportsac?

 

They asked me. (Laughs) I was so happy about it. It’s their 40th anniversary and they wanted me to represent… it was great. I love and cherish the brands I’ve worked with but LeSportsac was the first one that, from point zero, they put me out there. The memories of the beginnings, the memories of the successes, I’m always very, very emotional about the brand. And I’m not telling you this because this is a LeSportsac event. It’s really a true thing.

 

What was your working relationship like? Did they give you complete freedom?

 

Complete freedom, I would say. We discuss, “Guys, what do you want if we do something like this… as a general theme?” They give me advice. Sometimes they’ll say, here, there is too much black or maybe move this girl. They have a very strong creative team, so, of course, I’m always open to listen to them.

 

Has your design process changed since the first time you collaborated with LeSportsac?

 

Very much. If you look at the first LeSportsac print and one of the latest ones, I think I improved a lot as a designer. The style is way more refined, the lines are more clean, the composition is better organized, the number of characters, I tried to throw in many of the characters that became iconic like the Cactus Friends.

 

What inspired the character Palette?

 

LeSportsac said, “Simone, design for us something unique.” I thought of using a leopard because it’s a very feminine and elegant animal. LeSportsac is a skin-based brand and I thought, this can be a leopard that changes the skin with the mood she has.

 

Do you have favorite pieces from the Fall collection?

 

It was interesting that LeSportsac was always going for classic bags, but this time they wanted to try something that was shaped like the Palette character. I thought it’s cute, it’s something more Tokidoki and I think it’s cool that they’re trying something like this.

 

What inspired you to create the Giramondo design for the Winter collection?

 

I’m a huge traveler, I live on airplanes. LeSportsac is a brand that you find in airports; they have a big Duty Free distribution, they’re in the major cities of the world so I thought, why not do something about traveling?

 

Your designs sell out super fast and some of them become available on eBay at insane prices. Do you ever look up your stuff online? Or is that something you don’t think about?

 

At this stage, no, I don’t really have the time to go, “Let me see what’s up on eBay,” but when we had done Barbie and I put the tattoos, I went to check because there was such a TV boom and it became very controversial. From $50, it went to $1,300 on eBay so it was cool to see how fast it grew in a few days. It’s fun, it’s interesting.

 

You’ve been based in LA.

 

Yes, for 11 years.

 

Does it look like a Tokidoki world?

 

It’s a mess. (Laughs)

 

What do you remember most about your last visit to the Philippines?

 

The fans. There were way more than I expected. I did one event and a hundred-and-something people showed up. Then there was a gallery event, just a little informal thing, and it was 10 p.m. and there were about 150 other people at the event. You don’t do two events in the same city in the same day; and they showed up and they came. It never happens, it was so surprising to me. Everybody was very patient with me painting again, some stayed until 1:30 a.m.

 

Was that the first time you realized how big your fan base here is? Or do your fans reach out to you online?

 

Even in the US, probably the American-Filipinos, out of all the ethnic groups, are really No. 1. In LA, in Hawaii, there are so many Filipinos and I know they’re a huge group of our customers.

 

But in the Philippines, Tokidoki doesn’t have as strong a presence as in the US, so it was very, very surprising.

 

LeSportsac is at Greenbelt 5, Rustan’s Makati, Rustan’s Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Alabang Town Center, Gateway Mall, Ayala Center Cebu and Robinsons Magnolia.