Author: Diane

Review: Kimono-inspired On The Go makeup bag

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Today I’m showing off a beautiful kimono-inspired travel makeup bag by Mandy of The Lime Green Sewing Room. Mandy is a good friend as well as an incredibly creative and talented person and I wanted to support her new endeavor.

If there’s one thing I love nearly as much as kimono, it’s makeup. I’d been looking for a travel bag with an attached brush roll and couldn’t find one that was compact enough to throw in a purse but big enough to actually carry anything useful, so I asked Mandy if she’d be interested in helping me out and I’m so thrilled with the results! She combined a few patterns together to create the On The Go makeup bag, and it’s absolutely perfect.

This beautifully mod kiku fabric was the jumping-off point for the entire bag. The colours feel especially kimono-inspired to me, I’d love to see an outfit that incorporates red, grey, and mint green like this! The brush roll section is a great accent, and I love that she went to the effort to find coordinating details like the ribbon tie and even the zipper. The brush roll part is treated so it’s easy to clean, it just needs to be wiped down if the brushes leave a mess on it and the top flap keeps them well-protected in transit. The bag itself is enormous – it holds everything shown in these photos with room to spare, and once it’s tied shut it fits comfortably in my hand and barely takes up any room in my purse. This bag is adorable and with careful organisation and planning, it will be just as practical for an overnight jaunt as it will be for a long vacation.

You can find the Lime Green Sewing Room on Etsy, Facebook, and Instagram!

I purchased this item myself and chose to review it.If you have a topically appropriate craft, product, or service you would like me to review, please contact me.

To Boldly Kimono Where No One Has Kimono’ed Before

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As soon as I saw this kimono on eBay, I fell in love. Considering the age of the piece predates Star Trek by quite a bit, I’m certain it wasn’t intentional, but the individual golden yabane motifs made me think immediately of the Starfleet Insignia. If you’re a regular reader, it will come as no surprise to you that I, a self-professed giant geek, am a huge fan of Star Trek. I knew I had to have it, and started envisioning how I would coordinate it right away!

I was really hoping to do it yesterday, in honour of Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary, but it only arrived today. I picked it up from the post office on the way home from a very long day at work and despite my better judgement, I had to dress the mannequin right away. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to accent the gold insignias with the Command Gold of the original Star Trek, or the Command Red of The Next Generation (and subsequent series), and then I remembered I had this great red and mustardy gold hanhaba obi. I tied it in such a way as to feature both colours, which I think was a lovely compromise. Lastly, I used the two pieces of this adorable friendship necklace from my Loot Crate subscription as a perfectly thematic obi-kazari.

Thanks for reading. Live long and prosper. Image result for llap emoji

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Items used in this coordination

Art Gallery – Seasonal Kimmidolls!

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dolls_mine

Just a little entry today! I’ve been very busy with work and art commissions and was really in the mood to create something for myself. To celebrate coming up on the end of one year of seasonal themes on the blog, I thought I would make my own little custom Kimmidolls. I used real ones as inspiration for their faces, and then gave them each a custom body to match the four varying themes. They’re very simple, but they make me happy! I’ll be back soon with real content, but for now I hope these little ladies made you smile.

Back to School, Meiji-Style!

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I have always loved the look of the traditional Meiji/Taisho era schoolgirl outfits; the youthfulness of the hakama, the timeless feel of the yagasuri kimono, the modern and almost masculine touches of little leather ankle boots. When I splurged on this teal hakama a few months back, I’d imagined pairing it with my red and white yagasuri komon. What I hadn’t thought of was including this vintage taffeta haori I love to death, but as soon as I saw the three pieces sitting together in a pile I knew I’d found the perfect finishing touch to this outfit and with lots of schools starting this week, it seemed like an ideal time to pull it all together.

I knew I wanted to use a black obi to help anchor everything, but I don’t actually own a black hanhaba obi. Thankfully, because I was just dressing the mannequin, I could fudge things a little. I used the waist part of a two-piece tsuke-obi and a big obi-makura in the back to give the hakama something to anchor to. The plum motif of the haneri might not be totally seasonally appropriate for a “back to school” outfit, but the colours felt so right I had to run with it.

Aside from the haori (which is incredibly narrow, even by vintage standards), these pieces are all quite large which means I can totally fit into them. The hakama especially makes it easier and more comfortable for me, so expect to see this coordination on yours truly at some point in the near future. A cute pair of ankle boots would make things easy and still be appropriate to the ensemble. I just need to invest in a proper black hanhaba obi and then find somewhere to go and hope that the cooperates!

Items used in this coordination

Tokai-Dos and Tokai-Don’ts

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I’ve had this 53 Stations of the Tokaido tsukesage for a long time now. I’ve never worn it myself, but I did put it on my friend Frances one day. The obi, by comparison, was an absolute impulse purchase a few weeks ago – I was buying another item from the seller and this was only $10 so I couldn’t say no! Especially since it’s a lovely stylisation of Station 49 – Saka-no-shita, which is a station I don’t have on any items in my collection yet. For the price, its absolutely gorgeous. The bulk of the design is woven in, and then touches are pulled out with beautifully lush embroidery to add depth and texture. It’s a bit slippery to tie, but definitely not the most challenging obi I’ve had to work with.

Generally the rules of kitsuke say not to match the motif on your kimono to the motif on your obi, and to contrast the colour of one against the other. However, when I saw these two pieces next to each other, my mind drifted back to my first experiment in very monochrome and matchy outfits, and I wanted to give it another shot. Rules are an excellent starting point, but sometimes breaking them with forethought and intention can produce some amazing results.

I’ve always loved the peachy pink sunset accents on the kimono and decided to make them pop with the accessories. I feel like this resulted in an overall very calm and serene outfit with a bit of punch, and I love it!

I do apologise for the quality of the photos today; my camera was being difficult so I used my mobile phone camera. It worked, but it’s not ideal. However, I make no apologies for the utterly terrible word-play in the title.

Items used in this coordination