Category: Mannequin Coordinations

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

 

Fit for a Party

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Just a little entry today, but I was so inspired by the Oshiroi perfume that I knew I had to make an outfit worthy of it. I knew it had to be something timeless and elegant, so using a kurotomesode was the way to go and this gorgeous hamaya piece fit the bill. It’s quite long and the design comes up very high. Also, when worn in a more standard way a lot of the design gets lost in the ohashori. This leads me to believe it was originally intended to be worn hikizuri-style, so of course I ran with it.

I went with my own twist on typical tachikata geiko-inspired styling, with a gorgeous gold obi and white and gold accessories. I even used a red obiage as a sort of momi beneath the obi, but it got a little lost. The obijime is technically too casual, but it matches the kimono so perfectly with that rich teal and almost pinkish red, I couldn’t not use it. 

Getting the mannequin to show off the beautiful perfume box was a bit of a challenge, and I’ve had to photoshop the hands slightly so if they look mangled I apologise.

Items used in this coordination