Tag: beige

Hello Dolly, Goodbye Dolly

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When Dolly Parton passed a few weeks back, it hit me hard. She was a (literal) shining beacon of hope in these dark times. Even if it felt like nobody else out there loved you, you knew Dolly loved you whether she’d met you or not. She was a voice for the voiceless, and damn, what a voice that was. She stood for the smallest, the most downtrodden, the most overlooked of humanity with a smile and a sparkle, and the world is a lot dimmer without her rhinestones and glitter and kind, loving voice.

Even if you didn’t like her music style, there’s at least one Dolly Parton song you probably loved. Whether it was Jolene, Nine to Five, or I Will Always Love You, her music was at the forefront of pop culture regardless of how niche, dated, or “cringe” country music might be.

My original plan was to do a tribute to her as soon as possible, but I was swamped and not in a great state physically and was having trouble motivating myself. So when folks online began suggesting September 25th as Dolly Parton day (9/25 – Nine To Five) I knew it would be the right time to pull something together.

My original thought was pink, pink, pink, to go with her colourful, bubbly, and feminine style, but then I remembered this furisode with butterflies. Dolly identified with butterflies for most of her life, and they became something of a personal emblem for her. That, combined with the colour scheme of this kimono, which feels a bit like autumn in the Great Smoky Mountains, made this feel like the perfect choice. I draped it hikizuri-style and left it trailing dramatically, because that felt right for such a flashy stage performer.

I went with a similar palette for the obi and tied it in a great, fluffy, ornate sort of musubi. The obiage might look a little incongruous but I had to include a rainbow for her longstanding love and support of the LGBTQ+ community. Also, it ties in nicely with the uchikake.

While the uchikake itself isn’t exactly suitable or a great match for this outfit and it’s certainly a lot flashier than the one in the song, I couldn’t leave out my own personal coat of many colours, now could I?

In honour of Dolly, I encourage you to do something kind and positive for yourself and for your community. Personally, I will be making a small donation to the Imagination Library.

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Classy and Creepy

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Happy Halloween! An appropriate day to raise myself from the dead, I think. I’ve just been incredibly busy, travelling and working and whatnot, but I do have some stuff in the works for the next little while.

I knew I had to get this one up today, though. The “obi” is too perfect for a classy and creepy outfit. Funny thing is, it’s not an obi at all. It’s two table runners from Target! One wrapped twice around the body, and one for the musubi. I wanted to keep the rest of the outfit subtle but still halloween-y so my bat menuki obidome and spiderweb haneri, and then remembered I had this lovely piece of soft spiderweb mesh I found in a remnant bin at the fabric store. It makes the perfect shawl, doesn’t it?

I love how this outfit feels seasonal and creepy but totally wearable, and I also love how the two star pieces are both found items that have nothing to do with kimono. The orange accessories were the finishing touch, and they add just the right amount of pop.

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Matchy Matchy Mums

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There’s two things “wrong” with this outfit, but when has that ever stopped me? I had another outfit planned for this week’s coordination but when this kiku furisode arrived I knew I had to pair it up with my purple kiku obi. Normally you wouldn’t match the motif of the kimono to the obi, especially not identically stylised ones like this, but the colours and the round mums were just too perfect to pass up. I also tied the obi in niijudaiko, which isn’t a musubi you’d typically pair with furisode, but I thought it added an interesting, more mature feeling to the outfit.

Since I was on such a matchy kick, I ran with accessories that were also perfect matches to some of the colours in the kimono. This outfit definitely feels very autumnal, which also happens to be my favourite season, so of course I love the end result!

What do you think? Do you like to understand the rules but deviate from them now and again, or do you prefer to stick to what works? I think both have merit; so long as you can explain why you chose to break a rule and aren’t doing it in a formal situation or stealing the focus from someone else, sometimes it can work out really well!

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Autumn Wedding

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Sometimes a girl just wants to put a wedding outfit on her mannequin for no good reason, right? I received this beautiful vintage maru obi as an extra when I bought the ume hikizuri, and for a while I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. It recently hit me that it’s the same sort of desaturated vintage colour palette as my beloved Taisho bridal kimono, and roughly the same level of flashiness, so it was worth trying them out together.

I really love how these look together, with the pops of red and gold from the obiage, obijime, and kakae obi to break things up. It looks beautifully autumnal, and since it’s snowing today and winter’s creeping up on me, I want to hold onto that fall feeling as long as possible.

It’s not as tidy as it could be, and that is a sad, floppy-looking bunko musubi but I was out of spoons and didn’t want to fight with it anymore (even with my poor long-suffering father helping me out). I figured I’d share the outfit as-is, rather than getting frustrated and not posting it. I’m still not feeling great, to be honest, and there’s a bunch of stuff happening in my personal life that I won’t bore you with. I just want to reassure you that while posting has slowed down somewhat these past few months, I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere.

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Tintype Vintage Feeling

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I recently got this really pretty lace collar from a friend, and it has a wonderful sweet vintage style to it. I decided to build a whole outfit around it. I wanted to stick to the vintage feeling by using soft browns and muted colours, and natural motifs. I am also more than ready for autumn, and wanted to see if I could evoke that without shouting “ORANGE! RED! FOLIAGE!” from the metaphorical rooftops. I do think that I managed to grasp it, as well as emulate the look and feel of an old tintype photograph. All the browns and beiges work so well together.

The obi I bought as part of my final Ichiroya purchase ( 😥 ) was perfect – more matching than contrasting, which suits the soft and subtle aesthetic I was aiming for. In lieu of an obiage I used some beautiful creamy crocheted lace to echo the collar. My initial plan was also to add some at the cuffs, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough.

Despite being relatively busy, the obi felt like something was missing. The ivory phoenix obidome brings in more soft cream tones as well as more birds, and is the perfect finishing touch. Unfortunately this obidome has somehow escaped my cataloguing escapades so no close-up photo of it for now, but I will fix that later.

I am thrilled with how this outfit feels almost monochrome but not quite, with the unexpected accents of pale blue and an almost salmon pink shade popping up in both the obi and the kimono. They’re the sorts of details that only make themselves known up close, and one of the things I love about kimono.

Items used in this coordination