You might think full-body animal costumes are ridiculous and childish but bosh, old chap; they are just the newest shit in Asia. Is there anything funnier than full-body costumes? And anything more comfortable than a one-piece? No. Exactly. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.
These onesies come in a variety of animals, each lovingly recreated with the right eyes, ears, nose and tail. All of them have a hood and pockets. Some have a huge pouch somewhere very low on the baggy pants. So far we’ve seen dragons, bears, bees, frogs, angry birds, that blue cat Doraemon and this year’s new models: cows, giraffes, Pikachus, that Disney creature from Hawaii and a red guy of unidentifiable provenance.
They’re a perfect outfit for pretty much everything: obvious stuff like sleeping, hanging out at home, bit of gentle yiffing. But also for doing your Sunday shopping, morning exercises in the park, brunch at Sunflour or, you know, running a marathon like this guy .
We first saw them around the universities in Shanghai, mostly worn by Japanese students who like to wear their pajamas on the street as much as Shanghai folks, popping out for a cup of Coco, getting some deep-fried chicken… Just a baggy crocodile slurping on some milk tea. It was love at first sight.
They originally come from Japan, where dressing up in animal suits is called kigurumi and those who do it are known as kigurumin. If you want the proper, fully licensed Japanese costumes, they’re about 60 US dollars each, available online. Luckily for us, the Chinese have copied the idea with their usual casual regard for intellectual property and you can pick them up in Shanghai for about 90rmb. Shanghai high five!
Many of those little pajama stalls downtown have a small selection, mostly crocodiles, bears, monkeys and angry birds. Then there are a couple of stores in that market under the People’s Square metro station that have a wider selection: we’re talking cows, that Disney thing from Lilo and Stitch. Stitch? The purple one. Pink rabbits. Pokemon characters, all that. The best stall we found was near exit 11, and there are two more between exits eight and nine. also stocks a selection, but you’ll pay more there.
Of course, Taobao has by far the biggest range: of cute, cute girls and happy, happy couples rollicking around and having the greatest time in their matching onesies, yiffing each other senseless. But the quality, sizes and cut vary widely, depending on where you buy and which brand you get, so if you want to make sure the fit’s right, Taobao might not be the best place. Search katong shuiyi (卡通睡衣) to see what they have.
In general, all designs come in a children’s size, plus in medium, large and extra large for adults. As we know, in China a large is not necessarily always large, so it’s better to check the size before you buy. In Japan, the cool kids tend to wear them extra-baggy so they look like a big round ball of cuteness, but in China some are cut slimmer. Go for the big baggy ones, or they end up looking like some boring Halloween costume. The tight ones look way less comfortable, too, and comfort is the main idea here.
They’re made of fleece and they give off this unbearable industrial smell when you first open the package but don’t worry about that. They’re all washable and it fades after the first wash. They are pretty big and baggy in terms of waistline so you can easily fit several layers of wool and sweaters underneath — handy during the Shanghai winter.
Price? In a downtown comic-junk, manga-model, novelty-slippers store on Xiangyang Bei Lu near Xinle Lu we paid 160rmb for the giraffe. In that People’s Square metro place we paid 150rmb for the monkey. The saleslady there assured us that since these were the newest thing from Japan, they were pricey. We pointed out that they were made in China, but this didn’t seem to make any difference. To her they were still imported goods, sort of, and however much we bargained she stuck to her guns: 150rmb each.
On Taobao you can find them from 60rmb and they have just about every animal imaginable, plus matching animal-themed slippers for 40rmb. We probably should have hit up Taobao. Double face palm.
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