Kits-Mas Day 12 – The Grand Finale

Okay, maybe not such a grand finale after all, but a finale nonetheless! Today’s outfit serves two purposes – the last day of this project as well as Fudangi First Friday.

This kimono, despite being quite casual, has always looked somewhat festive to me. Something about tartans and plaids just feel like Christmas. It’s a common pattern on wrapping paper, and (as you can see in my photos) tree skirts and decorations. So using this kimono in an outfit was a given, clearly.

Pairing it up with red to make it punchier might be a fairly straightforward and expected coordination but it just works so well! I love how the faint stripes in the obi echo the other colours of green and navy. Initially I had no plans to take a picture of the back of the mannequin without the red haori, but I realised as I was tying the obi that the karuta musubi looks like a present, so I had to capture that too.

Okay, so this is certainly not the most dramatic or exciting coordination of the project, it’s comfortable and cute and worked out quite well. It was also easy to put on after a frustratingly long day that started with me slipping on ice and smashing my elbow and ended up with me nearly being trapped at work because the lock on the front door froze. I honestly didn’t have the energy for anything more complicated.

While this has been a mostly enjoyable project, if I’ve learnt one thing from it, it’s to never commit to twelve consecutive days of anything, no matter how much you enjoy it. Between holiday stress, work, family stuff, etc, I am burnt the heck out right now . I think I will be taking a little hiatus from blogging for a bit, maybe a week or ten days. I’ve got lots of stuff in the works though, so I promise I’ll be back in full force very soon! <3

Items used in this coordination

Kits-Mas Day 10 – Eye of the Tiger

It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight…

Okay, I confess. Today’s coordination has absolutely nothing to do with the theme. I initially had a completely different outfit planned for tonight, more red and green. I had a long, tiring day at work. One of those days where nothing explicitly terrible happens, but lots of little things go very slightly wrong. I was already kind of dreading having to redress and photograph the mannequin before I’d even left work, but I knew I would persevere and do it.

However, this kimono arrived while I was at work. I actually won it back at the beginning of November, and it’s been in customs limbo for months. Part of me had already given it up as a lost cause. So imagine how excited I was when I found out it had been delivered! It completely changed my mood, and I couldn’t wait to see how it looked. When I bought it, I had suspicions that it would work well with my “tiger’s-eye” tsuke obi, and I’m really happy with the pairing. It also helped motivate me knowing I wouldn’t have to wrestle with an obi. While dressing a mannequin does have its advantages, it also has some disadvantages compared to dressing a person – there’s no passive resistance so you constantly have to be pulling fabric while pushing the form away. In my exhausted state, the lessened effort really appealed to me.

I think the obi works not only colour-wise but also thematically in a way. While I know the motif on the kimono is whirlpools and waves, I can’t help but see eyes with really lush eyelashes! The blue accessories just tied it all together neatly, pulling out the hits of pale blue in the wave design. I really like how it all worked out, and I kind of wish I could leave it on the mannequin for longer. Maybe I’ll put it back for a bit after this project is over.

Items used in this coordination

Jasmine – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

🎵 Now I’m in a whole new world with you 🎵

She may not have been the titular protagonist of her movie, but there’s no denying that Aladdin‘s Princess Jasmine is a feisty, independent heroine. Nobody’s going to marry her off to someone she doesn’t love, and she craves adventure outside the sheltered palace walls.

I knew right away that I had the perfect kimono for her. While the design on this houmongi is a real place, the Shah Mosque in Iran, there’s no denying that traditional Islamic architecture had a huge impact on the art direction of the movie, and the beautiful design of the fictional city of Agrabah. The gold obi with blue and turquoise arabesque designs was the perfect complement. I knew I had to incorporate her charming tiger companion Rajah, and I found a sweet little charm with a gold tiger inside of it, but it was transparent and would have been completely disappeared against the busy gold pattern of the obi, so I set out to turn it into an obidome. Backing it with a blue-green enamel helped call back to the gem in her hairpiece, and I love how it turned out in the end.

Of course, the finishing touch was the lamp. If anyone knows how I can get a Genie out of there, please let me know.

We’re so close to finishing this project now! I hope you’re all as excited as I am.

Items used in this coordination

Snow White – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

🎵 With a Smile and a Song 🎵

Snow White – the one who started it all, the OG Disney Princess. She’s kind and sweet and beautiful, and I wanted to make sure I captured all that in an outfit that still felt classic and simple. Her costume is very straightforward, and thankfully that converted quite well to kimono.

A simple creamy yellow iromuji serves at the base, echoing the skirt of her outfit. The blue obi has birds on it, but it’s in terrible shape and has really awkward pattern placement, so they’re not terribly visible. The outfit felt like it was missing something though, until I remembered the charming red capelet Snow wears for part of the movie. The red haori is a lovely call back to the capelet, and it ties everything together. For accessories, I absolutely needed a poison apple, and tying the bright red obiage into a bow reminded me of her adorable hair bow. The finishing touches were a sweet little bluebird keeping her company and a haori chain with seven sparkling stones on it to represent her the seven dwarves.

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This is probably one of the simplest outfits so far, but I think it pulled together perfectly. It’s sweet and straightforward, much like Snow White herself. And with this, we’re now more than halfway through the project! Only five more to go. I hope you’ll keep coming back to see them. 🙂

Items used in this coordination

Cinderella – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

🎵 A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes 🎵

I started this project with a modern princess, so a classic one seemed like a good place to go next. Cinderella is pretty much the quintessential Disney Princess – she’s kind, clever, determined, and beautiful. Her castle is the centrepiece of several Disney parks and serves as the opening sting for their movies. So I knew I had to do her justice!

I bought this kimono last month at Kimono Vintage Montreal, and I didn’t specifically have Cinderella in mind when I did, I just fell in love it with. I realised after bringing it home that it was a very appropriate shade of blue and had a definite princess vibe to it. While there is no pink in her official outfit, her mother’s dress she plans to wear to the ball initially is pink, and I really liked the idea of calling back to that in a subtle way. The obi has heian noble carts, reminiscent of her pumpkin carriage. Admittedly they’re not one of my favourite motifs but this one was a steal at $5 and fit the theme so well I couldn’t say no after a friend suggested it. I tied it in an improvised bow reminiscent of a fukura suzume to keep the balance between feeling sweet and princess-ish while still showing off the carts.

In a perfect world, this coordination would be paired up with some of Robe Japonica’s incredible acrylic geta to emulate Cinderella’s infamous glass slippers. However, they’re only available in men’s styles and they’re very expensive, so for the time being silver zori and a slipper obidome I made will have to suffice. A bit of black ribbon finished things off nicely, echoing Cinderella’s black choker.

So far, things are turning out very well in this project, I think. I hope I keep up this momentum and success throughout the entire thing!

Items used in this coordination