Category: Mannequin Coordinations

Aurora – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

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🎵 Once Upon a Dream🎵

Aurora, the lovely Sleeping Beauty. While she may certainly not be the most progressive of princesses, speaking less than any other princess and spending a large chunk of her movie unconscious, there’s no denying that as one of the original three she helped pave the way for what came after. I was initially quite stumped on how to coordinate her outfit, since we don’t really get a huge sense of her personality from the movie. Pink seemed obvious, but then I thought back fondly to the scene where the fairies are arguing over the colour of her dress. When I found this beautiful pink kimono with blue accents, everything fell into place.

I paired up the pink kimono with this beautiful white and platinum obi with tiny pink details. The design is of an abstract flower motif but with a little imagination, the round shapes are reminiscent of the spinning wheel upon which she pricks her finger, bringing Maleficent’s curse to fruition. Since Aurora seems like a fairly traditional, demure, romantic woman I decided to keep this coordination fairly straightforward too, sticking to appropriate accessories and tying the obi in a nice, stiff niijudaiko obi.

I hope you’re enjoying seeing these coordinations as much as I’m enjoying doing them! We’re more than a third of the way through, and I can’t wait to share more soon.

Items used in this coordination

Merida – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

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🎵 Chase the Wind
and Touch The Sky 🎵

We’ve done a Renaissance-era princess and a Silver-era princess so it felt like it was time for one of the modern revival princesses. Merida is one of my favourite princesses. She’s snarky, she’s witty, she’s tough but still vulnerable, and she’s determined to be the architect of her own fate. I found a few kimono online that were close in colour to her dress, but nothing really jumped out at me until I found this utterly perfect vintage piece. Not only is the base of it nearly the identical colour to Merida’s dress, but the yabane, or arrow fletching, motif could not have been more appropriate.

I debated using a brown obi to echo her brown belt but it made the whole outfit feel too heavy and overly mature. Instead, I went with a plain white hakata tied in a very practical karuta musubi, and amped up the warm brown tones in the obijime and dusty embroidered haneri. The bow was my grandmother’s, and I have fond memories of learning to shoot with it as a kid. Using it was pretty much a given. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that it’s actually a bright candy-apple red, but that’s nothing a little bit of photoshop couldn’t fix.

I really feel like this project is just continuing to build momentum, and I couldn’t be happier! It’s really satisfying to watch these come together. Maybe one day I’ll try to coordinate a fashion show or something and see them all at once.

Items used in this coordination

Cinderella – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

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🎵 A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes 🎵

I started this project with a modern princess, so a classic one seemed like a good place to go next. Cinderella is pretty much the quintessential Disney Princess – she’s kind, clever, determined, and beautiful. Her castle is the centrepiece of several Disney parks and serves as the opening sting for their movies. So I knew I had to do her justice!

I bought this kimono last month at Kimono Vintage Montreal, and I didn’t specifically have Cinderella in mind when I did, I just fell in love it with. I realised after bringing it home that it was a very appropriate shade of blue and had a definite princess vibe to it. While there is no pink in her official outfit, her mother’s dress she plans to wear to the ball initially is pink, and I really liked the idea of calling back to that in a subtle way. The obi has heian noble carts, reminiscent of her pumpkin carriage. Admittedly they’re not one of my favourite motifs but this one was a steal at $5 and fit the theme so well I couldn’t say no after a friend suggested it. I tied it in an improvised bow reminiscent of a fukura suzume to keep the balance between feeling sweet and princess-ish while still showing off the carts.

In a perfect world, this coordination would be paired up with some of Robe Japonica’s incredible acrylic geta to emulate Cinderella’s infamous glass slippers. However, they’re only available in men’s styles and they’re very expensive, so for the time being silver zori and a slipper obidome I made will have to suffice. A bit of black ribbon finished things off nicely, echoing Cinderella’s black choker.

So far, things are turning out very well in this project, I think. I hope I keep up this momentum and success throughout the entire thing!

Items used in this coordination

 

Ariel – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

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🎵Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?🎵

Six weeks ago, I found a kimono on ebay that was perfectly reminiscent of Belle’s yellow ballgown from Beauty & The Beast. I snatched it up, and thus the ridiculous Disney Princess Kitsuke Project was born. I spent the following weeks plotting out coordinations for every single one of the official princesses. Made a few purchases, but mostly tried to use my existing collection. However, six weeks in, that gorgeous gold kimono still hasn’t arrived. I felt my frustration setting in and my motivation up and running away. I knew the only way to keep myself on track was to work on some of the other princesses in the interim.

Ariel seemed like a good starting point, as she was the first “new” princess of my youth. I definitely identify the most with Belle (nerdy idealistic brunette? come on!) but had very strong memories of Ariel too so she seemed like logical next best thing. I chose my teal green hakama to mimic her tail, a sparkly purple komon to match her purple shell bra, and my shell haneri. It’s not very visible, but of course I had to use my whale hanhaba obi under the hakama, right? Last time I was at the craft store, I kept an eye out for charms and decorative items I could use in this project, and the first thing I found was a cute little shell charm. I figured I could work with that, and then I stumbled across the dinglehopper and couldn’t have been happier! I assembled them together with some silver chain, and some pearly beads and starfish charms finished it off perfectly.

Overall, I think this first outfit in the project came out exactly how I wanted it to. Which is a good thing, because now my motivation is back on track for the rest of them! I’ll likely be aiming to doing one a week, and then a big collective entry when they’re all complete. I hope you come back to see the others.

Items used in this coordination

Lush Peony Ikebana

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It’s been incredibly hot and muggy and rainy out here lately. While it’s not particularly fun for me it’s been fantastic for the garden! I managed to catch this vivid pink peony at the ideal time; it’s blousy and open without a hint of decay on it yet. I knew I wanted to balance it out with some foliage, and decided to keep it all to things I could get from the garden. The hosta leaves provide a sense of grounding, and the little white flowers feel sweet and fresh. I will be honest, I don’t know what they are. The vessel is one I found at a thrift shop a few weeks back, and felt cool and refreshing, perfect for a heady, humid arrangement.