Category: Mannequin Coordinations

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like… Something

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We were tidying and decorating the living room in anticipation of Christmas entertaining, and I thought I’d get Tsukiko in on the action. I pulled out my trusty green iromuji, and a red-and-gold obi. I had a heck of a revelation while I was dressing her. She’s a standard store display torso, which means she’s roughly a US clothing size 2. The iromuji was small on her. How the heck did I ever successfully wear this thing?

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I think she looks suitably festive and at-home with all the decorations. And don’t worry, she’ll be moved before we light a fire.

I wish you a wonderful holiday season, whatever you may celebrate, filled with love and light and food and family and happiness!

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!

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Outfit of the Week: Mystery Dragonflies!

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While folding and organising some of my older kimono the other day, I came across something that threw me for a loop. I do not remember procuring this kimono in any way. I don’t know if I bought it, if it was a gift, something I rescued from a thrift store… I really have no idea. In my dozen-plus years of collecting, I can tell you where nearly every piece in my collection came from, down to things like tabi and haneri. To have forgotten an entire (lovely!) kimono is quite a feat, I think.

That being said, I’m not complaining! This is a gorgeous piece. It’s a casual summer piece, very lightweight. I’m not positive on the fabric but it feels like a linen blend of some sort. It might be cotton, but it’s definitely softer and more refined than a yukata. The collar is conveniently sewn down and there is a light lining in the bum area and across the shoulders for cleanliness and reinforcement. It’s a beautiful dove grey with dusty blue foliage and adorable little dragonflies. The era is a bit hard to pin-point; it feels like it could be quite old, or it could be more modern but made to look vintage.

I wanted to make the coordination very cool and comfortable-feeling, so I kept things simple with a hanhaba obi. I also learnt a valuable lesson – this particular obi, while one of my favourites, is a finicky little thing that refuses to hold tight. I managed to get the kai-no-kuchi musubi to stay in place with the help of an obijime, but would not be comfortable wearing it out of the house like this. At least I know for the future!

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Gofuku no Hi, a day late and a dollar short.

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Yesterday, May 29, was  着物着ます (Gofuku no Hi), or Wear Kimono Day. It is a day to encourage kimono enthusiasts around the world to get out and wear kimono and have fun. Unfortunately, yesterday was an absolute no-go for me. I had work, I wasn’t feeling well to begin with, and it was incredibly hot and humid. So I decided to dress Tsukiko today instead.

I have been dying to pair this basho (banana leaf) houmongi and kikyou hakata obi for years now, and just never found the right opportunity until now. This kimono is one of the few that actually still fits me properly, but it’s still much more comfortable for me to dress the mannequin. I absolutely love the hints of icy blue in the leaves on the kimono and decided to accessorise in the same colour, to emphasise the cool feeling. I love how this outfit turned out, nearly monochrome but with the hits of blue for punch.

Outfit of the Week: Graduation Style!

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First of all, sorry for the lapse in posts! My laptop was out for repairs due to a faulty connector cable between the body and the screen, but it’s back now, which means I can resume semi-regular content updates 🙂

For this week, I decided to try my hand at a traditional graduation-style outfit of furisode and hakama. This particular furisode stirs up a lot of conflicting feelings for me. It was one of the first kimono I bought, despite technically being too old to wear it even back then. I also bought it while visiting someone who was very important to me during that phase of my life. We haven’t spoken in years, and the kimono still reminds me of that trip, but I was hoping doing something fun with it would help me distance myself from the awkward memories.*

Wrangling Tsukiko into the hakama proved a lot more difficult than I expected, and she looks a little rumpled, but the outfit still turned out pretty fantastic, I think. Unfortunately, for some reason, the date-eri looked INCREDIBLY NEON PINK in the photos, no matter what I did with lighting and then later in post-processing. I edited the photos to be a little more accurate. They’re still not perfect, but they are a better representation of the ensemble.

Items used in this coordination

*Update if anyone is curious, after some upheaval we’re closer than ever now. Maybe this was cathartic to the universe somehow.