JELIBOO AND FLUFFY B BY CATH LOVE
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HONG KONG | Jeliboo is a happy cute curvy 21 year old lady who is able to change her identity as often as at least once a week. She’s been Madonna, Beyoncé or even Kim Gordon performing her signature hit ‘Jeli-goo’. She's been a ballerina, a stone-age lady, a mermeaid... She eats everything she likes, Japanese Mochi, chocolate, cheese, cookies… She also loves to try new food from anywhere she travels. Because Jeliboo gets to travel too. She does yoga, she likes to dance; and to spend time with her best friend and confidant Fluffy B. He is a little bunny that only comes to life when Jeliboo is awake. Jeliboo is from Hong Kong, half Swiss half Chinese. She is not a person though. Jeliboo is Asia’s 'underground hello Kitty'; or at least this is what her creator, the illustrator, graphic designer and artist Cath Love aspires her to become.
Cath Love had been flirting with the idea of drawing women for a while. But inspiration did not come in hand until she was at a yoga class two years ago. She hadn’t taken any yoga lesson in a while. Doing the bridging was tough (I’ve been there too once before!). The instructor keeps telling you to lift your bump up -Higher, higher!- but there’s no way it will lift. No matter how hard you push. “I felt so big that day, that all of the sudden the idea of drawing a character with a cute big bump and sexy curves came to mind immediately”, she remembers.
So she went back home and started building a personality for her new character; and drawing a body for someone she wanted to be a “cute marshmallow”.
Cath Love’s focus was her new characters body. She wanted to reverse the usual trend of focusing in the eyes in disadvantage of the body. So she decided to cover Jeliboo’s eyes with her hair, so she could spend more time drawing her body. It worked out well. Jeliboo turned out to have delicate, elegant and tiny, tiny feet and hands, which contrast with her curvaceous body. Her mysterious eyes make her even cuter; and also she can play around by deciding in which situations she can show them. By the same token, what Jeliboo wears is very important too, so Cath Love likes to spend time designing clothes to make sure her character is gorgeously ready for any situation. “Jeliboo is like a paper doll to me. I get to putting different clothes on her depending on what she is to me on that day”, she tells me.
Jellyboo is cute in her shape. She’s got a bit bump but she’s learned to be happy about it. “Jeliboo is a funny character. Her bump becomes a funny and cute obstacle. And she knows to be happy despite these little obstacles her bottom creates”.
Her little friend Fluffy B plays a big role there because he empowers her.
Jeliboo did not grow up easy. “Jeliboo is like an ugly duck turning into a swan”, Cath Love says. And yet she still manages to make the best of each and every situation. "The whole point is to make people smile. To have something cute for the day", she says. Some of her Instagram followers are even creating a 'Jeliboo language' with all sorts of funny comments.
Cath Love, like Jeliboo, grew up in Hong Kong, where she is well known for her fresh, surreal and hip illustrations. Her designs are influenced by Asian style cartoons and the graffiti and hip hop culture she discovered while spending her Summer vacations in Switzerland in the 90s. She has collaborated with Island Records, Selfridges, Nike, H&M, Jimmy Choo, Café O group, Lane Crawford and Kangol, to name a few. Likewise, she is painted Jeliboo in the urban walls of Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Guangzhou.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CATH LOVE.
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