Contents

• What is Kawaii Holiday Market
• Venue/Atmosphere
• Programming
• Vendor/Attendee Vibe 
• Staff/Organization 
• Final Feedback

What is Kawaii Holiday Market?

Kawaii Holiday Market is a weekend long event sometimes held in spring or winter featuring kawaii or kawaii adjacent artists organized by Ten Ten Non-profit in collaboration with artist, Sebastian Masuda. It has been held two other times besides their 3.5 day expansion of the event this past December. You can check out their Eventbrite here for more lore. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kawaii-holiday-market-iii-tickets-1752199900069?viewDetails=true

2025’s winter event, started Thursday evening with a VIP night, then went through Friday Saturday Sunday with daytime and evening activities. 

MY PERCEPTION: I had been following this event for minute seeing that Sebastian held some workshops last time and I was so jelly lol When I was invited as a guest, I was surprised to hear it was expanding to 3.5 days giving it the convention treatment so quickly since the last event. I was excited about the guests and organizers all being decora oriented too! I was concerned though about it being only a few months away when I was reached out to. Usually events spanning multiple days that include out of town guest reach out much earlier.

Venue/Atmosphere

Kawaii Holiday Market was held, as it has always been, in the middle of NYC at the Ideal Glass Studio. I would describe it as a medium sized gallery space featuring exposed brick and ceiling windows. There was a main floor where most activities took place, a basement where the rave was held (among other things) and a 2nd floor where we dressed for the fashion show. 

When you entered the first main floor there was a Ten Ten table on your left to greet you then 3 rows of vendors filing the space until you got to the stage area. I was situated in between 6% doki doki, Kurebayashi, and Ghost Girl Goods across from the stage. The small stage had a large hand painted TEN TEN sign. Star and heart shaped balloons decorated the floor in front of the stage. Kawaii music filled the space as events took place. 

The downstairs rave space was like house party sized and was next to the only bathroom of KHM from what I could tell.

MY PERCEPTION:  The Ideal Glass Studio set up very much reminded me of zine fests I attend in the midwest because of the open plan space, a vendor’s hall with a variety of display styles and products, and the expressed commitment to highlighting small independent artists. However, they had programming more similar to a convention like a fashion show, rave, workshops, and panels etc. I admired their ambition and taste in vendors!

With the open plan layout of the space I think it was a little small for all these things to take place comfortably for both attendees and vendors. The aisles between vendors were too small for customers to get through without being in single file at some points. We could not rehearse the fashion show without being seen by the attendees which gave away our outfits before the show. There wasn’t a calm space to decompress if you were overstimulated. I also saw some attendees using wheelchairs and wondered how they would access the restroom or was dealing with the crowds.

Programming

Like I was saying earlier, KHM featured panels, workshops, a rave and a fashion show similar to what conventions offer for the j-fashion audience. Some workshops offered were kandi making with Kurebayashi, decoden hair clips with cyber.grl, kawaii candle making, and navigating taobao! I held the Define Your Style Zine Making workshop where I taught attendees how to make a mini zine and use it to talk about their style. I wish I was able to attend more of these workshops but I did see that they were well attended. Even mine, that had a not as well known of a subject matter, had about 7-10 people. Thankfully, I participated in the Broken Doll workshop with Sebastian and that was a blast!

What I think really stood out from the programming lineup were the mixing of activities not related to j-fashion necessarily. They had an idol showcase featuring PAiDA, Eru, and other groups. Talented drag performances during one evening. A karaoke segment. Para Para dancing in the rave room. An ariel hoop performance. There was even some stand up worked in! 

MY PERCEPTION: I think this was the aspect they excelled in the most next to maybe vendors. I could go on and on listing more things there were to participate in. I love pulling other artistic perspectives and niche into the j-fashion world. It’s not just what we wear it’s what we do! This creates depth in our celebration of alternative style outside of the consumption of it.

With that being said…maybe they could do less??? Like as an event that maybe sees itself as growing into a j-fashion convention I understand trying to have a LOT to do. Yet, I feel with the space and the amount of staff etc they could build on things a little slower so each point of programming could have their full attention. Also, this is an opportunity to not become a convention but become something more intentional diverging away from constant entertainment and consumption. At least…that reflects my personal values haha

Vendors/Attendee Vibe

41 vendors (at least from what I counted) tabled at the winter KHM. There were well established creators like Egglien Creations, Ghost Girl Goods, and Dyke Mint just to name a few. Not sure if there was anyone completely new to vending in general. Most of the vendors featured colorful apparel or accessories that would work well within the decora, fairy kei, or sweet lolita styles. Some vendors sold secondhand items straight from their closet while a few others sold tattoo or candy making commissions. Since the items were mostly quality handmade kawaii goods the price point of things were matching that expectation though I think anyone could get something if they were willing to stick to small accessories, prints, or stickers. Vendors’ tables were $450 for the 3.5 days that was to be paid at the point of application. Some vendors shared the 4ft tables by switching off days of vending. There didn’t seem to be a curated application process where you wait for an acceptance and pay on a deadline afterwards.

Attendees I saw either wore the j-fashions listed above (there were some darker styles too) or were creative individuals outside of the alternative fashion community stopping in to get a taste of the unique artistic perspective. Kids and teens were also drawn in (probably by cybr.grl fandom :3 ). Saturday and Sunday were especially crowded but Thursdays’ VIP night already had more people than the organizers expected. The daytime vending and panels were free to attend so anyone could join.

MY PERCEPTION: I literally wanted to buy something from everyone’s table! I was so sad I couldn’t but I tried getting most artists to sign my Kawaii Icon Autograph Book (TM) to make up for it haha. Really just great stuff from all the vendors. I hadn’t seen some people in years. It was great to catch up with folks in person since I dipped out from being as active online etc. Some people asked about that but that’s a whole other post. The vendors were truly their strength.

I didn’t have a ton of sales/make a lot of money due to my table being more suited for a zine/indie comics fest where pricing is expected to be lower and I’m not even in a place of having a large body of work in that area yet. What I got from this event was connection with fellow artists and long time fans of my style. It was very touching to hear how my personal fashion journey had inspired other black femmes to follow their decora fashion goals.    

Staff/Organization

TENTEN non-profit is ran by 4 board of directors and a handful of volunteers it seems like from their website and my communication with them. Sebastian had some involvement with planning KHM but I’m not sure how involved he was besides adding some programming, suggesting some guests, and volunteering the Tokyo Delic restaurant space for the after party on Sunday. KHM dates were announced Oct 3rd on instagram. Guest began being announced Nov 18th. Blessed Pudding was heavily coordinating things during the day. I wasn’t able to find his official title but he seems to put together a bulk of the j-fashion events by TEN TEN. There were others like Midori helping with sound/video presentations. Marina helped with some photography and promo through her channels.

MY PERCEPTION: This is where I think they struggled the most. Everyone was working quite hard so effort wasn’t an issue. However, some of the guest relations were a little rocky and the common response was to reiterate that they are a non-profit organization which at some points felt dismissive. For example, there was an oft comment made to a handful of KHM guests and vendors that implied the event may be cancelled due to unsold tickets already before we even saw a single guest or workshop announcement by TEN TEN. They might not have meant it, but that put pressure on these guests (including me) to promote the event as much as possible. Then the status of the event was never brought up again to reassure us that things were ok. Meanwhile some guests had to push TEN TEN to be formally announced by the official account. There was confusion on if we would be announced or we needed to do it ourselves. I think more time for promotion 8-12 months would have given time to get more volunteers, guest travel preparation, tickets sales, etc. Everything felt so rushed on my end. I still have not been paid for my workshop contribution and some other guests were not paid in a timely manner.

At the event there was a bit of confusion on who to go to about aspects of the event or who to message if you’re running late. The schedule for the event days was not put in a clear static info graphic you could access easily. Going through Eventbrite to find a link to a video schedule on Canvas was clunky. Accessing it through a an insta post wasn’t efficient either. There was not a pamphlet day of to confirm schedules or the venue map for where certain programming were being held. Water bottles for vendors and models would have been nice throughout the days of KHM.

UPDATE 1/30/26: I was paid for my workshop contribution on 1/28. After sending two emails checking in on this starting Dec 28th with no reply, I decided to instagram message the TENTEN account and I got a separate response from one of the lead organizers on the matter. My suggestion for the future is for the event to collect payment information before the event then payment with a printable invoice is provided to the artists within a communicated timeline. There was a lot of communication through instagram dm for quickness and convenience but for certain business matters email or another channel of communication might be considered more professional.

Final Thoughts

I think Kawaii Holiday Market is a refreshing “decora” take on a 3 day j-fashion event. I loved its variety of content and the community vibes were immaculate. There wasn’t an anonymous feedback form offered despite being asked for by vendors but they insisted on us sending individual emails with vendor feedback instead. I think events of this size and that intends to grow beyond need certain things to work well (non-profit or not). This is what I will send. The staff/organization of the event behind the scenes needs a bit more work and probably time for more communication with such a small team but I have a lot of hope for this event’s future if those things are remedied!

Thanks for reading my review! Did you go to Kawaii Holiday Market? If so, did you enjoy it? If not, would you want to go? This review took a lot out of me so I probably won’t do one for a while but I hope you enjoyed it!