Category: Mannequin Coordinations

Delightful dolls, delayed

, , , , , 0

Hina-matsuri (雛祭り, doll’s day) was this past Thursday. In the past, I’ve made my own dolls for display but this year I just didn’t have the time to do much of anything, since I work all week now. However, I did want to do a little something, even if it’s technically too late.

I knew I wanted to use this ningyo obi, despite the type of doll not being the typical dolls used for this festival. One day I will find a piece with proper hina dolls on it and I will use that, but until that happens this is what I’ve got.

This kimono may have seemed like an odd choice, but if you look closely there’s bright red accents in the beautiful embroidery. They actually coordinate quite well, I think. Also I think the pink, pastels, and adorable bunny are all ideal for a holiday that celebrates girls.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used my beloved blue and red shibori obiage or my mint and reddish-orange obijime so I was thrilled to have an excuse to pull them out again. A pretty floral haneri in shades of pink with turquoise foliage was a nice finishing touch. As well as featuring dolls, this outfit feels like a great bridge from winter to spring, perfect for early March.

Slava Ukraini! Heroiam slava!

, , , , , , 1

Слава Україні! Героям слава!
Slava Ukraini! Heroiam slava!
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!

This was not the outfit I’d planned for this weekend at all. But things changed dramatically earlier this week when a power-mad despot invaded a beautiful independent country full of brave people. If you’re a regular reader here, you know that I tend to deal with anxiety and grief by throwing myself into coordinating outfits. It’s a strange coping mechanism, but it helps me.

The Ukrainian flag seemed like an ideal jumping off point; in fact when I was sitting on the floor of the kimono room, feeling overwhelmed and re-thinking my entire coordination plan, my father came into the room and said “Do you have something in blue and yellow?” It was comforting to know his brain was on the exact same wavelength mine was.

I have several blue kimono, none of which are exactly the right shade, sadly. I chose this one because it’s my favourite and because the bokashi haze around the hem lightens the whole piece up, bringing it closer to the flag. Originally I’d had a gold obi in mind, but then I remembered the yellow side of this Tokaido hanhaba I own. Is it technically too casual for this kimono? Yes. Do I care? No. A matching haneri and a beaded obijime that’s the exact correct shade of blue complete the outfit. The formality is all over the place, but today that wasn’t my priority.

If you’re feeling as helpless as I am, I urge you to donate to either the UNHCR or the International Committee of the Red Cross to help assist in their efforts in helping people on the ground. Any funds generated by this blog (my two Patreon Patrons, I thank you!) will be donated to the UNHCR this month on my part.

Items used in this coordination

Lovely Winter Landscape

, , , , , , 0

This obi was the first piece I ever got with a Stations of the Tokaido motif, and it’s very special to me. When I was hunting for inspiration for a new coordination I looked out the window and it hit me. Everything is very snowy and wintery and monochrome here in Montreal, and I wanted to capture that feeling of cold, blustery, no-contrast weather. Ideally a pale blue-grey iromuji would probably have worked better but I don’t own one, and this one is close enough in colour. Also the heavy texture looks like windblown snow-drifts, which helped reinforce the feeling I was going for.

I chose an obiage and an obijime in an almost-identical icy mint colour to keep things very monochrome and ensure all the focus was on the obi.

As pretty as winter is, I am very ready for it to GO AWAY. I want grass and flowers and longer days, please! Is winter bad where you are? Are you also fed up with it?

Items used in this coordination

Dancing Queen

, , , , , 0

This is one of those coordinations that’s been on my to-do list pretty much since the day the kimono arrived. I love this dance piece and I really wanted to pair it with the orange hakata side of this vintage chuuya obi and do a fun odori-influenced outfit. For some reason the photographs don’t capture either orange properly, they’re a much better match in real life.

I decided to go with an ochre haneri to kind of reflect the gold of the kimono, a gold and silver obijime for the same reason, and this red shibori obiage was to draw attention to the red date-eri that’s sewn into the kimono. A simple bunko musubi literally ties it all together, a fairly standard one for odori outfits.

Also, every time I hear or think of Dancing Queen by ABBA now, this ridiculous video gets stuck in my head. If you have a few minutes and need a good laugh, I can’t recommend it enough!

Items used in this coordination

Matchy Matchy Mums

, , , , , , 2

There’s two things “wrong” with this outfit, but when has that ever stopped me? I had another outfit planned for this week’s coordination but when this kiku furisode arrived I knew I had to pair it up with my purple kiku obi. Normally you wouldn’t match the motif of the kimono to the obi, especially not identically stylised ones like this, but the colours and the round mums were just too perfect to pass up. I also tied the obi in niijudaiko, which isn’t a musubi you’d typically pair with furisode, but I thought it added an interesting, more mature feeling to the outfit.

Since I was on such a matchy kick, I ran with accessories that were also perfect matches to some of the colours in the kimono. This outfit definitely feels very autumnal, which also happens to be my favourite season, so of course I love the end result!

What do you think? Do you like to understand the rules but deviate from them now and again, or do you prefer to stick to what works? I think both have merit; so long as you can explain why you chose to break a rule and aren’t doing it in a formal situation or stealing the focus from someone else, sometimes it can work out really well!

Items used in this coordination