I’ve been wanting to put this outfit on for a while, since I bought the haori on my birthday and today I was feeling under the weather and didn’t go out, so I figured it would be a good time to see how it all looked together. BIG MISTAKE. Kitsuke and a fever do not mix, especially not when the obi is made of the skin of Satan himself. This obi is beautiful, but it’s synthetic and brand new, which means it’s both very stiff and very slippery. It would not stay put, and I ended up cheating on the obi a bit, since I knew I was not going out today.
Overall I am very pleased with the coordination of this outfit. It’s almost as though the haori was made specifically with this in mind. I pulled out the pinky pastel tones with a pink obiage and pink and silver obijime, and then tied it all together with silver zori. However, my kitsuke (and the look on my face in the photos) makes me cringe. My ohashori’s a mess, my collar’s all over the place, and if you could see what I did to make the obi stay put I’d be hideously embarrassed! But let’s pretend everything is fine, and just admire the coordination some more.
So let that be today’s lesson – if you’re feeling like refried death to begin with, don’t try wrestling with kimono for no good reason.
Bebe Taian
CHOKO Blog
Gion Kobu
I’ve learned this lesson the hard way myself…but actually ended up with a happy accident, yanagi musubi once. I was dressing in homongi for Halloween, but was sick with strep throat and enlisted some assistance in tying my obi. I was aiming at otaiko, but my dressers got a bit confused and we ended up calling it “good enough.” Only in looking at photos of me later did I realize I had departed completely from the traditional drum bow.
That is awesome! It’s great when things like that work out well 🙂
I think the coordination turned out beautifully. 🙂 Hope you feel better soon!
Thank you 😀
I’m feeling better now, but I think I’m going to avoid trying any kitsuke for a bit.