着物月 Kimono Tsuki

Indigo Girl

Diane Sunday, January 31st, 2010 Friday, October 29th, 2010Catalogue, Ensembles, Kimono 3

I’d been waffling about buying a Taisho-era indigo piece for a while when this came up on Ichiroya, and while it was a bit more than I usually pay for kimono, the colour, size, and condition of it were all worth the investment in my mind. This is a houmongi with era-typical long sleeves and a beautiful, multiseasonal floral design. It’s got branches of ume (plum blossom), iris, botan (peony), and bamboo around the hem, and a bold, graphic stem of tachibana, which is probably my favourite floral motif. I love how squishy and fun they look!

It also has some gorgeous, lush embroidery on some of the geometric designs

However, I think one of my favourite things about this kimono is probably one of the most subtle. Woven directly into the fabric, before the dyeing process was started, is a gorgeous red and gold windowpane plaid. You’d never see detailing like this on a modern houmongi, as nowadays that sort of design is considered strictly informal. Naomi wrote a great piece on the qualities of indigo dye, and the transitional phenomenon of putting stripes (which are very casual by modern standards) on more formal kimono. It’s a trend I think is beautiful and needs to come back into vogue.

I’ve worn this kimono once, but only inside the yard, as I’m a little worried about wearing such an old piece out and about. Maybe one day when the right time and place come up, I will do so. I chose to pair it with a late-Showa era obi, which may seem odd but the clouds, grasses, and colours just seemed perfect with it. The obiage and obijime were a gift from a friend, and bring out the soft blue and olive tones in the kimono perfectly. For a vintage feel, I chose some burnt paulownia geta instead of zori.

Home sick kitsuke time

Diane Monday, January 18th, 2010 Friday, October 29th, 2010Ensembles, Haori, Kimono, Obi 4

I’ve been wanting to put this outfit on for a while, since I bought the haori on my birthday and today I was feeling under the weather and didn’t go out, so I figured it would be a good time to see how it all looked together. BIG MISTAKE. Kitsuke and a fever do not mix, especially not when the obi is made of the skin of Satan himself. This obi is beautiful, but it’s synthetic and brand new, which means it’s both very stiff and very slippery. It would not stay put, and I ended up cheating on the obi a bit, since I knew I was not going out today.

Overall I am very pleased with the coordination of this outfit. It’s almost as though the haori was made specifically with this in mind. I pulled out the pinky pastel tones with a pink obiage and pink and silver obijime, and then tied it all together with silver zori. However, my kitsuke (and the look on my face in the photos) makes me cringe. My ohashori’s a mess, my collar’s all over the place, and if you could see what I did to make the obi stay put I’d be hideously embarrassed! But let’s pretend everything is fine, and just admire the coordination some more.

So let that be today’s lesson – if you’re feeling like refried death to begin with, don’t try wrestling with kimono for no good reason.

Why being my friend is dangerous

Diane Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 Saturday, May 30th, 2020Ensembles, Kimono 3

My dear friend Anlina was in town and came to visit me at work yesterday. We then went to dinner, and they came to crash at my place afterwards. We talked and got giggly and silly, and at some point the idea of dressing them in kimono came up. I’ve honestly never dressed anyone but myself before and thought this would be a great chance to practice. Anlina is lucky, they have a great body for kimono. They’re not wearing any structural undergarments here, merely a snug tank top.

My only stipulation was that they choose an outfit involving a tsuke-obi (pre-tied obi) as I’d been working all day and was tiiiiiired and not up to tying anything. I think we pulled together something cute, even if the formality is all over the place.

And of course, Tribble had to get involved.

So, what do you think, good first try for dressing someone else? Outfit cute, even if it makes no sense? Isn’t Anlina adorable?

Items used in this coordination

: Asanoha and Ume

: Dainty Vines

: Leaf Green Shibori

: Green Round

It wasn’t a rock! It was a rock lobster!

Diane Monday, December 21st, 2009 Friday, October 29th, 2010Ensembles, Events, Kimono, Obi 6

This weekend I was invited to a holiday party at a friend’s. Initially, I’d planned to wear kimono but the bottom dropped out of the thermometer and it was nearly -15 so I scrapped those plans. I waffled about what to wear for nearly an hour, had a mini-breakdown, and decided to go with the kimono anyways, since I’d be in a warm car and a warm house for the bulk of the evening. Boy am I glad I did!

I decided to pair my awesome spiny lobster nagoya obi with my red and white yabane komon. I added a black and gold haneri, a red obijime, and a black obiage with red polka-dots. Unfortunately not visible in any of the photos are black tabi and red and gold zori. I pulled together what I feel is a rather Mamechiyo Modern style outfit.

Closeup of the awesome obi:

And my hamcat:

To keep warm, I put on my huge ridiculous snowboots and an adorable brown fleece wrap with pompoms. It looked cute, fit over the kimono, and kept me toasty warm. I think I am going to need to invest in more of these!

The outfit got a great reception from many of the party guests, including someone who had recently attended a Japanese wedding and said my outfit brought back fond memories for him. I also matched the hostess’ decor!

The coolest part by far though, was meeting a couple of awesome fans of Japanese culture and chatting with them. Emilie is interested in getting into kimono and I hope to help her along with that, and Nick already owned a yukata that he ran home to change into when he saw my outfit! In the freezing cold weather! We couldn’t resist geeking out for a few pictures 🙂

When fandom hand-gestures collide! Turns out we’d both watched the new Star Trek movie the night before. Clearly, this kooky kimono meeting was fate XD. Pardon the wonky Vulcan gesture on my part – my pinkies have been dislocated so many times due to my own clumsiness that they don’t move correctly.

All in all, it was a great evening. It’s one of the first times I’ve worn kimono out to a large gathering of people unfamiliar with my hobby, so I’m quite pleased with the positive reactions! Expect more pictures of social events in the future!

Back in black, birthday-style.

Diane Sunday, December 13th, 2009 Friday, October 29th, 2010Catalogue, Ensembles, Kimono 2

In my entry about my birthday purchases, I mentioned that I’d gotten one other special piece that I was going to devote an entire entry to. Well, I finally had some free time today to devote to putting an ensemble together and dressing in that piece. Without further ado, allow me to present my kurotomesode/houmongi hybrid mystery kimono!

At first glance, it looks like a subdued kurotomesode, and that is where it was hanging at the kimono showroom. At first I was going to skip over the whole rack, having no real need for more formal items, but I can never pass up a good ogle. While I was rummaging, I noticed something a bit out of the ordinary about this particular piece – there were designs on the sleeves! Kurotomesode, the most formal kimono for married women, is typefied by several things. They are fully black, they have five white crests (three in the back, two in the front), they often have a white second layer known as a hiyoku, and they have designs on the hem only. This one fit all the criteria, but was thrown off by the decorated sleeves.

For the ensemble, I was inspired by the subdued, chic look of geiko in their formal outfits. I paired it up with a warm gold fukuro obi I received as a birthday gift, a white obiage with red shibori clouds, a green and gold obijime to highlight the green in the kimono. Underneath it all I wore a red juban with a lushly textured white and silver haneri. I also put my pearl necklace on, since it was a birthday gift and I felt it was subtle and classy enough not to look out of place.