Category: Mannequin Coordinations

Bold Pop Art

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I fell in love with this komon as soon as I saw a close-up of the pattern — stylised roses made up of tiny dots. It’s got a Charles Rennie Mackintosh art & crafts meets Roy Lichtenstein pop art feel to it and I couldn’t say no. I already have several other plans in mind for her, including something for Halloween, but I knew for her debut I absolutely had to honour the pop art vibes. This piece also happens to be absolutely enormous, which gives me a lot of potential for dressing people up in the future! Who knows, I might even fit into it myself thanks to a neat new thing I’ve purchased recently. But more on that later…

Breaking up one black and white pattern with another, we have my beloved hakata tsuke obi. This is one of those pieces that always cooperates., and I’m of the mind that hakata goes with everything. Such a bold and graphic combination needed an equally vibrant accent and what better than hot pink shibori? I do kind of wish I had an obijime that was solid pink too, but part of me likes the little hint of sparkle the silver brings.

I would like to try something more calm and muted with this soon and lean entirely in the opposite direction, but for now I’m very happy with how fun and punchy this coordination is! It also ended up looking a fair bit like the visual symptoms I get when I suffer from a migraine with aura. Entirely accidental, but hilarious.

Items used in this coordination

Birthstone Ensembles – July – Ruby

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Another month, another beautiful birthstone! For July, we have the bright and bold ruby. If you saw my sneaky little addendum to the series last week, you’ll know that I just did garnet for January, and I wanted to make sure Ruby was a much flashier and more vivid ensemble despite them both being red.

I was also feeling the urge for a bit more contrast, since so many of these outfits have been very monochrome. Of course the kimono had to be red, so I took the opportunity to feature this vintage komon again. It’s bright red with a hint of a magenta undertone, just like an actual ruby. I had this black, gold, and red nagoya that still hasn’t been used much, and I though it would tie in the black and gold accents on the kimono and bring some metallic sparkle to the outfit. Red, black, and gold accessories to finish things off, including this haneri that I use way too frequently. In fact, I think I may have used it last time I used this kimono. Oops!

Seasonally, the motifs here are somewhat wintery (ume, tsubaki), which doesn’t exactly suit the July theme, but eh. This is more of a vibe project. Maybe next year I’ll focus on seasonal/birthday flowers and see how that goes!

It also reminds me of a more casual riff on the very first kimono and obi I ever purchased. That kimono is still one of my fondest treasures and I really should get her out and feature her sometime soon.

Items used in this coordination

Home and Native Land

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Yes, I am in the process of getting a US green card. Yes, I plan to move to southern California full-time once that happens. However, I am Canadian through and through and nothing will ever change that. I don’t have blood, I have maple syrup in my veins.

Since today is Canada Day I decided to celebrate with a thematic outfit. I’ve done red and white before, so today I’m thinking outside the box. I’ve said before that this houmongi reminds me of Canadian landscape paintings done by the Group of Seven, so what better place to start? Of course, I had to work in maple leaves again so I got out my beloved momiji/hakata chuuya obi.

To amp up the maple, I used a burgundy haneri with momiji print and then used similar-coloured accents for the obiage and obijime. I tried to tie a tsunodashi musubi but it’s been eons since I did and I’m a little rusty. Everything else just fell perfectly into place and was a pleasure to do, which is always a great feeling. I love how the whole thing turned out, and while it doesn’t scream Canada, it definitely murmurs it, like the wind through trees or waves lapping up on a rocky shoreline.

Maybe in the future I’ll end up doing a stars-and-stripes themed coordinate in July to celebrate. Not for a few years yet, though…

Items used in this coordination

By Any Other Name

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I found this charming rose furisode at the same time as I got the absolutely unctuous brown houmongi recently. As a married woman in her mid-forties, did I need yet another furisode? Heck no. Was I going to let that stop me? Also no. I love how subtle and demure it is, especially for a furisode. And the price was fantastic.

My beloved emerald and gold hakata packs a nice punch against the muted creme tone of the kimono, and pink accessories were a no-brainer. I’d love to get an actual rose obidome or obi-kazari to go with it, but this gold and sakura piece works in the meantime. I feel like this is a good “mature” furisode outfit, especially if I were to tie the obi in something a bit less large and fluffy next time.

The kimono is quite new so I don’t have a catalogue photo for it, but weirdly I don’t seem to have one for this sanbuhimo either? Which is odd, because I’ve had it for eons. One day I’ll get my collection catalogue up to date. One day…

Items used in this coordination

Birthstone Ensembles – June – Alexandrite

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Alexandrite is my favourite of the birthstones, and it holds a special place in my heart. Not because I’m a June baby — far from it, my birthday is in November — but because I love the unexpected intersection of physics, chemistry, and aesthetics that cause it to change colour so much that my engagement ring and wedding band feature it heavily. Many stones have a sort of iridescent shimmer or glow to them, but few legitimately change colour the way alexandrite does. The main stone in my ring is typically a rich indigo, looks teal under fluorescent lights, bright purple in the sun, deep plum in candlelight, and on the rare occasion I’m under direct UV light (gel manicures, the occasional round of day-glo mini-golf) it beams an impossibly eerie neon red.

Of course, I knew I had to reflect as many of these colours in today’s coordinate as I could, and this houmongi has them all aside from the neon red. The shapes of the… windows? around the hem also remind me of cut gemstones, which made it even more perfect. While the actual gemstone does not have a propensity to shine yellow, there’s already yellow accents in the kimono and they reminded me of gold so I ran with that for the accessories. The obi also looks faceted and shimmers between blue, green, and teal, so that was a no-brainer as well.

I tried something funky with the obi musubi but to be honest I’m not sure it worked. At least the pieces all work well together otherwise!

Items used in this coordination