Tag: Christmas

Kits-Mas Day 2 – Oh Christmas Tree!

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Yesterday I went with a classic holiday-inspired colour scheme, so today I wanted to do something a little more fun and modern. I bought this hanhaba obi a few weeks back and while it was listed as “geometrical trick art” but it totally made me think of pine needles, which of course made me think of a Christmas tree!

I realise purple is a bit of an unexpected accent colour, but it was already in the obi and coordinates so nicely with the warm green so I decided to run for it. I also added some little sparkly gems to the haneri to make it feel more festive and improvised an obi musubi to look like a tree! I’m not sure how well I succeeded there, but I think it’s cute enough. A few more sparkly gems to emulate ornaments on a tree, and this outfit just came together perfectly.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, those of you that celebrate. Did you receive any awesome kimono or related things as gifts? If so, I would love to see! As for me, I got some great books I’d been wanting; the 25th Anniversary update of Liza Dalby’s Geisha and a lovely little reference called Kimono Design  and I’ll be posting reviews of both when my life settles down a bit.

Items used in this coordination

The Twelve Days of Kits-Mas

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Merry Christmas to any and all celebrating today! You might remember me mentioning recently that I had a silly ambitious project in the works, Well, here it is!

Today is the first day of Christmastide, or what is often referred to as the Twelve Days of Christmas. A lot of folks seem to think it’s the twelve days leading up to Christmas, but that’s because over time it’s become sort of merged with Advent. In reality, Christmastide runs from December twenty-fifth to Epiphany on January sixth. My plan is to do one themed outfit per day, mostly revolving around the traditional colours of red, green, and gold, but with some variations. Kits-mas is a combination of the words kitsuke and Christmas, because I’m a sucker for a terrible portmanteau.

For the first day I went very simple and traditional; my favourite vintage houmongi in a rich red, paired with a green and gold hakata obi and metallic accessories. I wanted something classic that just screamed “Christmas” for today, and I definitely accomplished that! I also decided to change the mannequin’s usual position to show off our tree and decorations. It seemed fitting.

Be sure to check back every day for a new coordination until January 6th. 🙂

Items used in this coordination

 

Holiday Gift Guide for Kimono Lovers

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If you know and love someone who collects kimono, you know how difficult shopping for them can be. I’ve created this holiday gift guide as an attempt to help you all out. Hopefully it will offer information on some reliable sellers and suggest some slightly out-of-the-box ideas that will be of interest to kimono collectors without breaking the bank. I have been working on it for quite some time now, and I hope you find it helpful! This post is quite long, so please click through to read the whole thing.

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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!

Merry Christmas, dear readers!

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Just a quick post to wish anyone celebrating Christmas today a wonderful holiday. If you’re not celebrating Christmas, I hope you had a wonderful holiday whenever and whatever it was, and that you have a great weekend! That lovely goof in my tree is my beloved Vinnie. He’s the only decoration we need!

I was a lucky duck and got a wonderful lobster tsuke-obi and some beautiful watercolour prints of traditional Kumadori makeup that I will be sharing soon. I actually have several gorgeous Japanese pieces of artwork I’ve received recently that I’ve been meaning to post – perhaps I’ll do an entry about them now that I finally have a bit of time off.

Did you get any wonderful kimono or related items as gifts this year? If so, what did you get! Please share in the comments 🙂