Decole concombre: why not let a bunch of cute, tiny animals chillax at your house?

Decole’s a zakka/homeware brand in Japan – and a well-known one, if you live here. With a name that’s short for ‘decoration’, as you’d write it in katakana (デコレ). Decole started up in Nagoya in 1994.

The theme of most Decole items is ‘animals’. Not all of them, to be fair. ‘Drive’ is a car accessories range, and ‘humania’… do we really need to explain that one. But as for the rest, it’s animals all the way. You’re about to see a lot – a lot – of cats, bears, dogs, frogs, and birds.

As… cute? as a cucumber

Sub-brands split Decole’s wide variety of goods up into categories. And into cat categories, like necocoro and Happy catday. We warned you on that one.

For this post, we’re gonna focus on 3 similar Decole item categories: concombre mascots, concombre tableware, and concombre ‘other’.

The ‘concombre’ (コンコンブル) ranges get that name from… the French word for ‘cucumber’. If Decole ever explained why, we still haven’t found it in writing anywhere.

The mascots are mini display figures, tableware includes mugs and plates, and ‘other’ covers general home goods, stationery, and useful things.

An object for every occasion

Decole ‘mattari’ mascot releases celebrate changing weather and special occasions. New Year (and Chinese New Year), sakura and Hina Matsuri, summer festivals, Halloween, autumn, Christmas and winter…

‘Special occasions’ also means personal stuff, like getting married, passing your exams, or having a baby. They’ve made so many, you can easily use different mascots for every day of the year.

‘Mattari’ (まったり) means ‘comfy, laid back and relaxed’. You won’t see a concombre mascot looking antsy. Hopefully, seeing their chill attitudes inspires you to take it easy today (and tomorrow, and the day after that).

The mascots, accessories, and mini display stands are all sold separately, for you to mix and match. Some of the item pics are there to give you more ideas – these scenes were dreamed up so you don’t have to.

Don’t forget to eat your salad!

You can eat and drink almost anything using concombre tableware:

• mugs (some come with a spoon)
• plates
• bowls
• ladle holders
• ‘mamezara’ mini plates
• chopstick rests
• toothpick holders

They’re designed to be kawaii and super useful at the same time. Like how mascots on the spoons have arms or legs that bend over, so they can hang on the edge of the mug.

For people who love having a complete, matching place setting on their table, Decole puts the same designs on multiple items. Maybe the simplest ones to find are dog-and-cat-themed ‘SHIBA · HACHI’ pair items, with the easily-searchable name.

Having so many animals around for dinner turns each meal into a picnic. Without the worry that any of them are about to sneak up and steal your food.

They look nice, and they work perfectly

Then… we get to concombre ‘other’. Everything else that isn’t for eating or admiring from a distance. Mascots are lovely to look at, but ‘other’ items are more functional, same as the kitchen goods.

Highlights:

• Humidifiers that look like sumo wrestlers, shibes, and horses
• Smartphone stands
• Smartphone stands that are also money boxes
• Forest-themed wooden clips
• Paperclip bottles with helpful magnets inside
• Photo holders and message card stands
• ‘Small thing’ holders

Make the most of it, this might be the only time these animals ‘help’ us humans out with stuff.

Start decorating with Decole concombre mascots

You’ve got literally hundreds of thousands of reasons to buy kawaii stuff from Japan. And within that, Decole concombre items on sale online number in the hundreds by themselves.

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