Tag: ro

Summer Breeze

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Summer may officially start tomorrow, but it’s here with a vengeance already. It’s blisteringly hot and humid out, and even looking at the heavy, layered outfit that I’d left on the mannequin was making me hot! I got this adorable ro komon with bells a few years ago but never had a chance to wear it. It’s very long, which is great, but it’s also very narrow. Even at my thinnest, it never fit. It’s just too cute to get rid of, and I figured it was high time it had a moment in the (blistering) sun.

The obi is not usumono, but it’s a thin hanhaba, and the yellow colour really draws the eye to the yellow-gold bells on the kimono itself. I used my pink seashell summer-weight obiage and obijime to add an accent colour. I went with the ubiquitous pink set because it’s actually the only summer set I have. I’ll eventually invest in more sets, but as I currently don’t own a single usumono kimono that fits me, it’s not really a priority right now. I tied the obiage in a bow to echo the obi in back, to add a bit more softness and girliness to an otherwise very simple outfit. It feels light and airy, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Items used in this coordination

Outfit of the Week: Summer Love

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For this week’s outfit, I decided to throw caution to the wind. The previous ensembles I’ve posted haven’t necessarily been 100% season-accurate, but this one is by far the most inappropriate for this time of year. It’s been in the negative degrees all week here, and my back deck looks like this right now.

I needed something to remind  me that it won’t be like this all year, so I decided to do a breezy summer coordination. This blue ro tsukesage is one of the last things I purchased before my health really fell apart, and I’d never had the chance to wear it, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I had initially planned to pair it with my off-white sha hakata obi, but the then I found this hitoe hakata with touches of pink that echoed the pink flowers on the kimono so well. It’s technically a little thick to wear with such a lightweight kimono, but it’s borderline and I figured since I was only dressing Tsukiko I could get away with it. I think this outfit has a lovely refreshing cool feel to it with the icy blue and white, with the hits of a cool-toned pink to liven it up a little.

Please ignore the weirdly lopsided otaiko, I pulled it out of place slightly while rotating the mannequin and didn’t realise until after I’d taken the photos. ~.~;;

Items used in this coordination

A couple of new ro

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With summer rapidly (and hotly) approaching, I figured it was high time I invest in a few more ro pieces. I managed to snag these two for a great price, and since they were from the same seller and summer sheer weave is very light, the shipping was very affordable too. When all was said and done, I paid just over $20 for the two of them, shipping included.

Grey-blue ro tsukesage with flowers

I love how soft and painterly this looks – like an impressionist watercolour. It’s definitely got a cool, breezy feel to it and I really can’t wait to wear it. I think it will look lovely with my white sha hakata and pink accessories.

Cream komon with suzu

From a distance, this doesn’t look like much – just beige with yellow dots, but up close you can see that the “dots” are actually adorable little round bells, printed in a sort of faux-bingata style. It’s absolutely adorable! Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly narrow, so I need to get off my wider-than-average butt and widen the side seams.

From the Archives – Hydrangea ro komon

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Unfortunately, life’s been both hectic and humid here lately and I haven’t had many opportunities to wear kimono. Hopefully the pictures of new items and book reviews and whatnot have been interesting to you guys. I am really enjoying the book reviews and I’m really hoping to do more in the future. However, this is afterall a kimono blog and it’s about time I posted some more pictures of outfits!

These pictures are actually quite old, from when I first got the outfit, nearly two years ago. However, they are of my first (and only!) ro summer weave outfit, so I figured they might be worthwhile to share at this time of year! I was saving them because I had planned to wear this outfit again to an art exhibit I attended recently (I will be posting an entry about that soon, don’t worry!) but unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating, nor was the knee I injured a few days beforehand. I ended up wearing a haori with jeans and a nice top. Boo.

The kimono itself is a deep navy, with bright white and pink hydrangeas printed all over. The obi is cream and hakata weave. When I bought it, I thought it was white, but the cream is a nice contrast against the navy. The accessories are a soft pale pink, to tie in with the hydrangea. I have also since bought a pair of pink lace tabi to wear with this outfit, but have no photos yet.

Please forgive the excessive amount of bosoms going on in this outfit – at the time I was using a bright lime-green rubber datejime to flatten my bust, and there was no way of hiding it under the kimono, since it’s semi-transparent. I had to do without, and this is what the girls look like when not sufficiently strapped down.