Tag: iromuji

Dearest Gentle Readers…

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Tonight, the ton gathers to celebrate that most esteemed of events, the second half of season four of Bridgerton. Yes, I fully admit it — I am addicted to that fluffy, frivolous, historically-inaccurate fantasy. Waiting for Benedict to get his head out of his perky little posterior has been driving me batty!

I decided to mark this most auspicious of television evenings by doing a coordination inspired by Lady Violet Bridgerton and her delicate, tasteful pastel colour palette. Ideally I would have had some blue in there but nothing in my extant collection quite fit the bill. I think mint and lavender do quite nicely though. I also think that the very textured, nearly sculptural feel of the kimono and the shimmering silver in the obi are very reminiscent of a lot of the brocades and lush fabrics used by the show’s costume department. All together, this does feel like something she would wear in a different imagining of the series, does it not?

Wisteria is a motif I’ve always wanted but I don’t currently have anything that really features it front and centre. It would have been the perfect choice, due to the huge boughs covering the front of Bridgerton House, alas. I did debate this multi-floral obi, but the colours were too bold and the wisteria isn’t exactly the star of the show, so I decided to stick to my original pastel vision. I did, however, tie the obijime in a fuji musubi to at least call back to it. With the outfit being as simple as it is, I made sure my kitsuke was as impeccable as possible, to let the elegance and subtlety shine, but I feel like that was the one slightly more “fun” touch that finished things off nicely.

How about you, gentle reader? Are you a fan of Bridgerton?

Items used in this coordination

Lovely Winter Landscape

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This obi was the first piece I ever got with a Stations of the Tokaido motif, and it’s very special to me. When I was hunting for inspiration for a new coordination I looked out the window and it hit me. Everything is very snowy and wintery and monochrome here in Montreal, and I wanted to capture that feeling of cold, blustery, no-contrast weather. Ideally a pale blue-grey iromuji would probably have worked better but I don’t own one, and this one is close enough in colour. Also the heavy texture looks like windblown snow-drifts, which helped reinforce the feeling I was going for.

I chose an obiage and an obijime in an almost-identical icy mint colour to keep things very monochrome and ensure all the focus was on the obi.

As pretty as winter is, I am very ready for it to GO AWAY. I want grass and flowers and longer days, please! Is winter bad where you are? Are you also fed up with it?

Items used in this coordination

Terrific Texture

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As much as it pained me to remove last week’s coordinate, it was time to change the mannequin. I thought for today I would focus on textures, an often-overlooked facet of kimono style and construction. This outfit may have no real variation in colour, and yet it’s anything but boring!

I paired my richly-textured mint iromuji with a tone-on-tone dusty pink hakata obi. Not only do these two pieces play well together texture-wise, the muted colour palettes complement each other perfectly. I emphasised the texture aspect even more with this haneri with a thick woven kiku design, a white shibori obiage (which is a bit too formal for this coord but it worked so well thematically) and a a white beaded obijime to introduce one last texture without adding more colour. I even arranged the obiage so the ruffled hem was visible, just to add one more layer of interest. Typically that edge is tucked away out of sight, but I thought it was a nice little touch.

I really like how this all came together. It’s very simple but also feels very luxurious, due to the nature of all the fabrics together. It’s even more effective in person, but you’ll just have to take my word on that!

Items used in this coordination

R is for Rinzu

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Rinzu, 綸子, silk damask

Rinzu is like jacquard, a beautiful tone-on-tone pattern achieved by weaving techniques only. No dye, no paint, just right off the loom with a rich, beautiful depth.

I have lots of pieces in my collection that have a rinzu base, but none of them show off and exemplify them quite as gorgeously as this vintage purple iromuji given to me by a friend. I decided to do an entire outfit (or as much as possible) using only solid pieces with bold rinzu fabric.

Aside from the utterly lush purple kimono, I used the mofuku obi I painted a while back, since you can still see the lovely water pattern in the black fabric. The obiage is a soft pink that ties in well with the obi, with a rinzu design of sakura and geometric lines. I tied it in a little bow for more sweetness and softness. I’m honestly not sure if the haneri counts as rinzu, the weave is much more textured and raised than anything else I own. But the design is woven, not painted or embroidered, so I ran with it. As for the obijime, the only rinzu one I own is an all-black mofuku piece, which felt too heavy against the black obi so I just went with a soft pink round braid.

The outfit is quite simple, but I think it does a fantastic job of showing off all the gorgeous woven design and texture that is rinzu silk!

Items used in this coordination

Tsubaki Aoi Kitsuplay

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Typically, when I do character-inspired kimono coordinations or kitsuke-cosplay (kitsuplay), it’s an adaptation; a translation of what the character might look like in an alternate reality. Today though, I was able to pretty much exactly reproduce a character’s outfit!

I recently watched a charming anime called Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi (かくりよの宿飯, Bed & Breakfast for Spirits) and imagine how excited I was when Tsubaki Aoi, the protagonist, changed into this green iromuji and purple obi, and pretty much stayed in this outfit for the bulk of the series!

I already owned every single piece here. The kimono looks more yellow in these photos than it actually is; in real life it’s almost identical to hers. The only thing I had to do was tie the obi with the back side visible to hide the embroidered design, since her obi is plain purple. The only thing I initially didn’t have was her leaf fan, a gift from a very important character in the show. I’d actually been holding off, trying to look for a synthetic tropical leaf when my mum brought home a bunch of flowers that just happened to have a real, fresh one! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and changed the mannequin right away.

I really loved doing this, and I think I’ll be working on another Anime with Kimono Eye-Candy post in the near future, so I can look for more outfits to reproduce.

Items used in this coordination