Month: July 2015

Outfit of the Week: Pretty Poppies

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I really should rename this feature to Outfit of the Whenever I Have Time, but I digress. You may or may not know this, but my mother’s name is Poppy. Because of this, we have a lot of poppy-themed stuff in our house, and for the longest time I had made it a goal of mine to find a kimono with poppies on it. When I found this one, I knew I had to have it. I love the slightly abstract, retro style of the dye-work. I actually did dress my mother in this once, but nobody managed to take photos, so I decided to put it on Tsukiko. I went with a simple red tsuke-obi to highlight the lovely red of the poppies, and a brown and green obijime to echo the khaki green in the hem. I also used a green haneri to reinforce that green accent. The obiage is actually a much darker, richer purple, closer to the eggplant colour of the kimono, but no matter what I tried, it photographed as this bright electric indigo. Oh well!

Items used in this coordination

Please don’t mind the dust

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I have found a much better photo posting solution, one that will allow you guys to click on photos of posted outfits to get larger and more detailed versions without leaving the site. However, I have to go through and manually change every entry, so it may take a while. If older entries seem to have problems displaying images or galleries, please be patient. 🙂 They will get fixed eventually.

Save Artisans – Bring Real Kimono to New York Fashion Week

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This post is a little bit different. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already fairly interested in kimono, and active in the kimono-related communities on the internet, but just in case, I’m sharing this anyway.

Hiromi Asai is a professional kimono stylist who strives to share the artistry and history of kimono with the world. Kimono Artisan Kyoto is an association of traditional textile artisans. Together, they are trying to get a fashion show happening at New York Fashion Week that will showcase kimono fashion and share it with the world. Hiromi has created a Kickstarter to help fund this goal. Please check it out, and consider donating to help keep kimono culture alive and well. They are at over 80% of the goal with two weeks to go, so this project is absolutely viable, but still needs support!

“Kimono” is now a well known word around the world, yet in its native Japan the art of kimono creation is on the verge of crisis. Reduction of kimono market, aging of artisans, and lack of their successors are slowly fading the once vibrant art.

We hope to revive and revitalize the world of Kimono by presenting authentic hand crafted kimono designs on the runways at New York Fashion Week. If we succeed funding by Kickstarter, this is the world’s first crowdfunding-based fashion show on the standard venues at New York Fashion Week. We believe this project is for the future of kimono and kimono fashion.

In order to expand the kimono market to the world, kimono artisans come out from their workshops and plan to show their kimono designs on stage at New York Fashion Week in February 2016, produced by Hiromi Asai. This project is organized by two non-profit organization, Kimono Hiro Inc. and Kimono Artisan Kyoto, in US and Japan, respectively.

You can also follow the project on Facebook for status updates and new information.

Update, July 26, 2015: The initial funding goal has been met with a few days to go! If you were debating pledging and have not yet, there is still time. They’ve added several push goals, and more funding can only help out.

Art Gallery – Memento Mori

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This is a very special piece. My friend Olga K, an incredibly talented and creative illustrator, decided to draw something inspired by my kimono obsession, but with plenty of room for experimentation and personal expression. I love this piece so much, all the depth and colour of it, and how Olga put her own personal twist on the outfit while still keeping a very clear stylistic connection to traditional kimono and Japanese arts. Every time I look at it, I notice new details that I hadn’t seen previously.

It may not be typical kimono artwork, but I think it’s all the more special because of that.