Kikicola is an art and lifestyle brand with Cambodian heritage that incorporates cultural art. Their products reflect Kiki’s vibrant and positive personality through vibrant pops of color which showcase her vibrant personality. Kiki also designs her own collection of silk scarves hand painted, dyed and sewn here at their studio studio.
Hayao Miyazaki used Kikicola to both comment on and critique aspects of modern society while also reminding audiences about traditional values and old ways. For example, Kiki leaves home for her journey, and upon hearing this statement her mother mentioned an “old custom” where 13 year old witches go out into the woods as part of their training to become independent witches; such a statement implies that this tradition might be gradually disappearing or at least being disregarded in favor of modernization.
As another example of this phenomenon, Koriko is being destroyed to make room for factories producing smog; Kiki finds this shocking, only later realizing it once was an extremely beautiful city.
Kiki’s experience in the city culminates with her being initially ignored due to their shock at seeing her as an unusual witch and dressed differently than everyone else in town. This helps further emphasize uchi vs soto and illustrate that traditional beliefs are being forgotten or disregarded altogether.