New Feature: Outfit of the week!

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Everyone, please say hello to the newest contributor to this blog. Her name is Tsukiko, she has no head, and she will be modelling outfits and coords that are either too small or too fragile for me to wear myself. As you probably know, my health is still not fantastic, and dressing myself simply for photoshoots is tiring and not ideal. Hopefully having Tsukiko around will encourage me to post more frequently! I am aiming to do one coordination a week, but we’ll see how long that lasts 😉

Today’s coordination was mostly an excuse to use this gorgeous antique irotomesode/komon hybrid. I have been in love with this thing since I received it, but it’s incredibly delicate and fragile silk and it’s very tiny. Realistically, even if I lost a hundred pounds, it still would not fit me. I paired it with a vintage remake obi I love to bits that’s also awkwardly small, and I love how soft and dusty they feel together. The obiage, obijime, and haneri are all modern, but they have a similarly desaturated pastel feel and I think they look perfect with the kimono. Please click on the images to see larger versions.

Items used in this coordination

Fun With Kimono Dolls, part 3!

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The first two entries in this series were so fun and so well-received I thought that another round would be a fun way to get back into regular blogging. Lots of neat new kimono doll-maker apps have come out since I did the first two, so hopefully you will find one you love. 🙂

I have also gone through the previous entries and tidied them up, removing dead links and adding larger thumbnails.

Wedding Kimono - Lots of fun, flashy, modern-style uchikake in this one! There is a variety of skintones and some versatile wigs, so decent base customisation. You can choose from several different kimono and several different obi.
Girls Kimono Show - Two girls in this one! Lots of very fun furisode and accessories. Kimono and obi are already paired, but you can choose handbags, footwear, scarves, etc to coordinate. There are also outfits with hakama. Plenty of hairstyles, eyecolours, makeup, etc to choose from but the skin tones are fixed.
Cute Kimono - Bit of a misnomer here, this one is actually yukata. Plenty of adorable patterns that vary from traditional to modern. Decent choice of accessories, and the base model is pretty customisable too.
Geisha Scene - By far the most customisation when it comes to the kimono. You can choose colours, patterns, accents, etc. There are also lots of options for collar and hem style, and you can make them as accurate or as inaccurate as you'd like. Up to three ladies can be included, and their hairstyles, makeup, and skintone can all be changed. Tons of options in this one!
Garden Geisha Scene - Choose from a selection of pre-designed kimono and obi, and then choose accessories, parasol, footwear, etc. Not a lot of customisation, but still makes a lovely little doll.
Furisode Maker - Lots of patterns and colours available in this one. Personally I find the pose a little awkward, but still fun. There are a selection of skin tones in this one too, but they seem to all be tint shifts of the original colour and as such don't feel very natural.
Chibi Kimono Maker - Quite possibly I've saved the best for last. This is where my new sidebar avatar came from, and it has an enormous variety of colours, patterns, and textures. There are options for multiple layers of pattern and gradient for the kimono, fancy obijime, date-eri, all the fun little accessories that make kitsuke such a creative hobby. Lots of hair colours and styles and a wide array of skintones give you tons of freedom with this adorable little doll maker.

Par For the Course

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As you may have noticed, it’s become a bit of a thing for me to dress house-guests in kimono. Several months ago, my dear friend Dino of Alternative Vegan came to stay with me. Our friend Frances came by as well, and I had the pleasure of subjecting them both to the blissful discomfort of kitsuke 😉

I had fun playing with gender conventions here. Dino has a very fabulous and flamboyant personal style, so I put him in a woman’s kimono and obi but dressed in a manly style, similar to my own experiments in otoko-poi style years ago. You’ll notice that he’s wearing the same Victorian Gothic London houmongi that Elise wore when she visited. This tends to be a popular one with guests; I suppose the motif is both quirky and familiar, which makes it accessible to people who aren’t really used to kimono yet.

Frances is wearing a woman’s kimono and obi, but with a very neutral, muted palette and no accessories. They are also much tinier than I am, and even my smallest kimono ended up being big and a little awkward to work with, especially since I have been out of practice so long. Alas! At least they both had fun 😀

Dino’s laughter is infectious, by the way. I don’t think our house has been consistently so full of random crack-ups as it was when he was visiting.

Items used in this coordination

We Have Control!

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So, as you may or may not have noticed, this blog was recently hijacked by Viagra resellers. Unfortunately, while I was recovering from surgery I let regular maintenance fall to the wayside, which left some of the plugins wide open for attack. It took quite some time, but I have finally managed to clean and purge everything.

Don’t worry, this hijack was entirely on my end, and visiting my blog during the period will not have put you at any risk. It just would have been enormously frustrating, and for that I apologise. I’m still too big and too tired to wear kimono regularly, but at least the resources here are back!

Basho, bunnies, and a buzz cut!

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Hello! I’m back, sort of! As some of you know, I had a cranial decompression back in April. I won’t elaborate because it’s a bit creepy and involves my brain meats, but feel free to ask me about if you are curious. Suffice to say it went very well, and my health is improving in leaps and bounds, but until recently I have not had the energy or stamina for kimono.

Earlier this week, Katsura Sunshine, the only foreign rakugo performer in the world, was on the local news discussing his upcoming performance at the Montreal Botanical Gardens Japanese cultural weekend. Queue several days of me getting very excited, planning an outfit, and being generally annoying.

One thing I was certain of, I wanted to wear my hakama. I’m still quite a bit heavier than I used to be, I tire easily, and I was going to be tromping around in a garden. The hakama would cover a multitude of sins. I then decided that since I’d be surrounded in foliage, it would be an excellent opportunity to wear the bizarre basho-leaf houmongi I bought eons ago and never had the chance to coordinate. I realised my bunny geta matched the colours in the houmongi quite nicely, so I went with a bunny haneri to tie things together. I was so excited. The whole outfit has a very soft/girly feel to me, all in shades of pink and purple with pale blue accents, so I decided to wear my pink lace tabi too.

This morning rolls around, dark and drizzling. I started having misgivings about going, but I figured it would be a good excuse to get out of the house. Until I checked ticket prices. It’s nearly thirty dollars a person to enter the Botanical Gardens, plus an estimated $15 to $20 for an afternoon’s parking. My father was going to accompany me, since I am not allowed to drive and was not up to spending an hour on the subway in a kimono. That would have been quite an expense, only to end up getting rained on.

Undaunted, I decided to put the outfit on anyway and take some photos in the yard of my lovely next-door neighbours. Their pear tree is bearing fruit, and was a great place to pose. All in all, I’m glad I decided to get dressed. It was wonderful for my morale.

Kimono and buzz cut, an excellent combination! You can see the charming hole in my head here, or at least what’s left of it… Thanks for looking! Hopefully now that I am starting to feel less sick all the time, I will be posting somewhat regularly again.

Items used in this coordination