Month: September 2011

Red and black plaid casual set

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When I saw this, I knew I needed to have it. It reminds me so much of a stereotypical lumberjack shirt and it called out to my inner Canadian. I’ve already got an outfit in mind for it, including an obi with a maple leaf, a fur hat, and my winter boots. I’ve just got to wait for snow! The fact that it’s incredibly long (167cm) was an extra bonus.

It’s a wonderful thick taffeta silk, much like my other plaid kimono. What I really love about this set though, is that the jacket is a dochugi, not a haori. Dochugi are more casual, and have a substantial decorative cord at the front where they cross over completely, rather than a haori which should hang open, held together with a small set of ties. I’m looking forward to wearing this dochugi with jeans and a black top as well.

As far as I can tell, this set is also brand spanking new. It’s still got the original basting threads and the white lining is completely pristine, and still stiff.

Lumberjack Kimono & Dochugi

Lumberjack Kimono & Dochugi

Lumberjack Kimono & Dochugi

Lumberjack Kimono & Dochugi

Art Gallery – Vintage kimono artwork

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Tiranaki (Naki for short) is someone I met on Gaia quite a while ago while we were both moderators. Naki is a lovely, talented lady. Aside from her awesome artwork, she makes beautiful handcrafted jewelry and hair ornaments and designs funky clothing and accessories, under the banner of Koana Designs. She makes some great origami-paper kanzashi that would look absolutely love with kimono, so definitely give the site a look.

The kimono she drew is quite ornate and doesn’t fit me ideally so it was fairly rumpled in the pictures I provided for her so the amount of detail she put into it is a testament to her skill. I love how both the background and the painting style have a wonderful vintage feel to them, it suits the age of the kimono, I think. To view the larger version, see iton her DeviantArt or click the one in this post, as always.

Tokaido Kurotomesode

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I actually received this quite some time ago. I purchased it on eBay and had it sent to my friend Jamie in NYC because Canada Post was on strike at the time and I was concerned about it getting lost. I picked it up when I was visiting her over a month ago, but I’ve either been busy or not in the mindset to blog lately, unfortunately. However, since I’m back in the mood now, I thought this would be a lovely piece to share with you all.

While kurotomesode are really the last thing I could really justify, and this thing is techincally too small for me to wear, I couldn’t pass it up due to the Tokaido motifs, as well as the non-standard design on the sleeve, much like my chidori and matsu kurotomesode.

The stations are woven onto patches of soft white bokashi-style dyeing so they stand out better, and it gives a really nice cohesive feel to the whole kimono. I also love that there’s a station on the sleeve, which is not standard for kurotomesode. It feels a bit more youthful this way. I also really like that the kimono artist took slight liberties with the design, sometimes moving things around, removing people from the scenes, etc. It makes it a bit more unique.

Tokaido Kurotomesode

Station 16 – Yui (reversed from original)
Tokaido Kurotomesode

Station 35 – Goyu (people removed)
Tokaido Kurotomesode

Station 46 – Kameyama
Tokaido Kurotomesode

Station 38 – Okazaki (people removed)
Tokaido Kurotomesode

There are also small vignettes that are either very loose interpretations, something from another print edition, or simply original inspired designs by the kimono creator that included.

Tokaido Kurotomesode

Tokaido Kurotomesode

Tokaido Kurotomesode