Tag: green

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

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I won this gorgeous green irotomesode on eBay a few weeks back. It’s so lush and gorgeous; soft old silk with a vivid red lining and a mirrored hem design that puts it in the late Meiji or early Taisho era. I knew it would be too small for me to ever wear, even if I manage to lose weight, but I had to have it!

It arrived in the mail on Tuesday, along with a cute little coordinating obijime. Unfortunately, the flu from hell also arrived on Tuesday. I barely made it through the day at work, went to bed less than an hour after getting home, and promptly spent nearly 22 hours asleep. I’m still not feeling well, but I figured since it was St. Patrick’s Day and the kimono is such a beautiful and vibrant kelly green that I had to muddle through and make an outfit with it.

I chose to emphasize the fresh spring feel of the green with pastel accessories and this lovely tachibana fukuro obi from the obi bundle a few of us splurged on years ago. The obi is adorable but badly stained, so not particularly ideal for wearing out, but I was able to put it on Tsukiko in a way that hides the worst of the discolourations. I really love how this outfit looks together.

Items used in this coordination

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: Lily Furi Coordination

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After deciding to make this a regular feature, I started planning out all sorts of outfits. Seasonally appropriate outfits, special combinations for holidays, etc. And then this lily furisode arrived and all my plans flew right out the window! I couldn’t wait to do something with it. I had this really lovely warm gold fukuro obi with subtle green and pink accents from the obi bundle eons ago, and it seemed like the perfect complement to the rich green of the kimono. I also happened to have just about the perfect obidome for this kimono, a gold oval with pink lilies on it!

Unfortunately, this also reminded me how long it’s been since I tied anything other than a simple hanhaba or nagoya obi, and I ended up having to improvise a sort of large-scale cho-cho/bunko hybrid musubi. It’s not ideal, but I think it worked out alright.

Items used in this coordination

Lily Furisode

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It’s been literally several years since I bought a kimono. I still have ones I haven’t worn, ones that don’t fit, ones that I am too old for. I’d promised myself no more buying kimono.

And then Jess went and put this one up on the market. I have coveted this kimono for as long as she’s had it. I love the rich, dark green colour and the beautiful, delicate lilies. She needed money, I needed this kimono. Clearly, it was meant to be.

It arrived today, and it’s everything I’d been hoping for and more. I can’t wait to dress Tsukiko in it!

The body is a gorgeous rich deep green, intersected with a sort of ribbon-like fluid design and lilies. The hem is navy blue, which I did not realise in the photos!

Punk yukata at the Astoria Street Fair

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So you may have noticed that there’s been a bit of a dearth of updates lately, and I sincerely apologize for that. I spent last weekend in lovely New York City, meeting up with some friends. Some I’d not seen in years, and some I’d never met before. We all knew each other from an online community. It was a wonderful experience, everyone was incredibly awesome and we all had a blast. Knowing my obsession with kimono and Japanese culture, Jamie (who lives in NYC) was kind enough to arrange a trip to Kiteya SOHO and to the Japanese street fair in Astoria. I bought a lovely komon at Kiteya that I will be sharing with you during the week, but I thought that I would at least post a few photos of the outift I wore to the street fair.

I’d been dying to wear the punk yukata Arian got me so I figured this would be a great time to bust it out. I decided to tone it down a bit with a green hakata hanhaba rather than the pink obi it came with. Unfortunately, it was murderously hot and we spent the morning on public transit and brunch at a lovely restaurant before getting to the fair, so I look a bit melted and rumpled. I’d like to take a moment to give enormous thanks to my friend Ben for taking these photos, carrying my crap, and fanning me when I got overheated.

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Can I just say how much I love my new glasses with this outfit? XD And a super-cute minion! I didn’t win him, just posed with him.

I also won an adorable tsukesage-komon at the fair, and will be sharing that soon too! If you would like to see more photos of the day, they are available in my Facebook album.