Little Shop of Smiles

KIKO Simple Goods, known to the locals as just “KIKO,” is a charming, small shop in Kapa‘a. Like none other, the space evokes all of the feelings of a really good friendship, one that constantly clicks and is accompanied by lots of laughter, warmth and fun. The shop is built on the close friendship of two women, Micki Evslin and Vicky Fennell, who met in Guam in 1977, and a mother-daughter relationship, as Vicky’s daughter, Natasha Biggart, is the third owner. It is not surprising, then, that so much connectedness among these remarkable women gives the place a welcoming feeling, similar to a warm embrace.

After decades of talking about opening their own shop, the women decided to take the leap four years ago. Micki called Vicky and said they “were running out of time” (both sharing the young age of 67). The timing was ideal as Natasha was available to manage the store. She had studied art and interior design and worked as a buyer for a designer who, she describes, “had a beautiful lifestyle shop in Montauk” in the Hamptons coastal region of New York. Several qualities resulted in a commonality among the owners, that they see themselves as “closeted artists,” share a love for travel with life experiences all over the world, and appreciate things of beauty, but not so much in a formal sense as a simple one. Although the three initially agreed that each would have a veto in buying, Micki says, “It’s rarely invoked because we all tend to like the same things.” Their common eye gravitates to “Japanese handicrafts and graphics” and “useful things like brushes, brooms, lights, textiles and household goods,” as well as what is required to make art, such as “good pencils, pens, papers, dyes, paints, etc.”

It is hard to know the best place to begin at KIKO, with such a diverse range of appealing books, art, clothing, and handpicked items. Visitors are sure to feast their eyes on things they have never seen before and things that will make them smile. Definitely, the art on the large back wall and scattered throughout is a smile teaser. Jo (Johannette) Rowley, whose studio is in Honolulu, experiments in ceramic heads and faces from a fantasy world. “They often have a childlike innocence and whimsy made possible by her tremendous skill,” Micki states admiringly. “We even carried some heads she created with her eyes closed, and they sold immediately. She often attaches little red birds to her heads, seemingly randomly, because they have a personal meaning.” Jo is an artist who seems to be very familiar with flights of fancy. Of her experience with clay, the artist writes, “I love the way you can take a handful of earth, and create something wonderful, special, interesting, thought provoking, amusing…I am inspired by all the strange and wonderful things that enter into my awareness.” Significantly, her work has been exhibited at the Honolulu Museum of Art, but visitors can admire and purchase her works at KIKO’s.

Kaua‘i artist Fanny Bilodeau is best known for her sense of humor in painting island chickens and catching them in the act of all sorts of imagined antics, for instance, driving golf carts and vintage woodies. She has titled several of her paintings Hens Misbehavin’. For KIKO, she has used a different medium, creating sculptures of fish out of pieces of driftwood. When visitors enter the shop, they immediately set gaze on Fanny’s wall hangings, some with fully exaggerated fish tails splashing wildly and others more minimalist, constructed from a few pieces of wood. Born in Zaire (presently the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and schooled in Belgium, she grew up criss-crossing continents, much as her creative instincts travel to different subjects and media. Her studio houses jars filled with materials she has painstakingly collected while combing the beaches of Kauaÿi, incorporating the natural elements into her sculptures. KIKO also sells her beach glass with a hue resembling celadon for display in clear glass jars or for customers to use in their own creations.

Bon Moore is another local artist who makes coloring books for the store from her intricate designs. Born in Fukui, Bon studied art in college in Hyogo, and clearly exhibits Japanese influences in her drawings. With the multiplicity and specificity of the lines she uses in her illustrations, it is almost as if her drawings are fibrous. That impression is close to the mark as Bon learned how to extract and work with coconut and other local plant fibers when she came to the island. Consequently, her drawings seem to have a “woven” quality or, at least, the sensitive precision of a weaver. She, too, explores different media and creates a variety of products from woven lauhala (the leaves of the hala tree used traditionally for handicrafts on island) to coconut and shell earrings. Her experience as an artisan inspires her art, which fits in well with the aesthetic of the shop. KIKO does not see itself as a gallery, but a space that presents opportunities to all kinds of artists and “makers,” who find beauty in the primitive and natural.

If you are feeling bookish, KIKO definitely has an answer for your desire, at any stage and age of bookishness. Customers often comment on how much they like the children’s selections and books by local authors. Natasha is the owner gifted with the book-picker sense. When I asked her what was her secret to book buying, she responded, “It’s just a collection of books we’ve loved and would love to read.” Once again, the owners’ deeply personal touch succeeds. For example, the store features copies of Bernard Evslin’s Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths, thinking it would be “fun,” according to Natasha, to carry the book written by Micki’s late father-in-law. As the book sparked my interest, I ordered it, only to find out it had sold over ten million copies, and I have been happily reading these myths told as stories, a genre which is familiar on an island where everyone seems to have an interesting story and likes to engage in talk story (chatting with friends). As a writer, I was immediately drawn to The Elements of Style (Illustrated), a later edition of the foundational text by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White originally published in 1918 and often required college reading since that time. It is updated and uplifted with 57 illustrations by Maira Kalman, with the Los Angeles Times describing it as “so friendly, so classic, so delightful…” Natasha promised her brother, who had collected the various editions of Strunk and White, that she would carry the book if she ever opened a shop. And if you love to cook or just like reading recipes, KIKO’s has an enthralling cookbook selection.

There was never a business plan for the store, only an agreement among three women, closely related, that they would carry things they loved. It would, indeed, be hard to superimpose a plan on something that grew organically from linked personalities. How does one explain that a small, flexible spatula would be found in the same space as Burmese baby shoes, healing Chinese oil next to bags made from vintage rice sacks (by a matron in her nineties in Honolulu), Mexican otomi (indigenous embroidered) pillows in front of, well, Fanny’s two-foot driftwood sculpture of a chicken riding on a pig, chasing a fishing pole dangling a corn cob at the end of the line? I asked Natasha what three words she would use to describe KIKO, and she summed it up perfectly—“eclectic, fun, collective.”

WORDS BY MARY TROY JOHNSTON

KIKO is located in Old Kapaÿa Town on Kühiö Highway and is open every day from 10am to 6pm. Call (808) 822-5096 or visit KikoKauai.com for more information.