Tag: kitsuplay

Ariel – Disney Princess Kitsuke Project

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🎵Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?🎵

Six weeks ago, I found a kimono on ebay that was perfectly reminiscent of Belle’s yellow ballgown from Beauty & The Beast. I snatched it up, and thus the ridiculous Disney Princess Kitsuke Project was born. I spent the following weeks plotting out coordinations for every single one of the official princesses. Made a few purchases, but mostly tried to use my existing collection. However, six weeks in, that gorgeous gold kimono still hasn’t arrived. I felt my frustration setting in and my motivation up and running away. I knew the only way to keep myself on track was to work on some of the other princesses in the interim.

Ariel seemed like a good starting point, as she was the first “new” princess of my youth. I definitely identify the most with Belle (nerdy idealistic brunette? come on!) but had very strong memories of Ariel too so she seemed like logical next best thing. I chose my teal green hakama to mimic her tail, a sparkly purple komon to match her purple shell bra, and my shell haneri. It’s not very visible, but of course I had to use my whale hanhaba obi under the hakama, right? Last time I was at the craft store, I kept an eye out for charms and decorative items I could use in this project, and the first thing I found was a cute little shell charm. I figured I could work with that, and then I stumbled across the dinglehopper and couldn’t have been happier! I assembled them together with some silver chain, and some pearly beads and starfish charms finished it off perfectly.

Overall, I think this first outfit in the project came out exactly how I wanted it to. Which is a good thing, because now my motivation is back on track for the rest of them! I’ll likely be aiming to doing one a week, and then a big collective entry when they’re all complete. I hope you come back to see the others.

Items used in this coordination

Princess of Themyscira

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This outfit was inspired by the strong and compassionate warrior whose name is on everyone’s lips these days – Wonder Woman! I’ve had so much fun doing geeky-inspired kitsuke in the past (Star Trek, Bitch Planet, and Star Wars) and I wanted to give Diana her due. My initial plan was going to be a blue kimono and red haori, but I realised the vaguely onna-bugeisha style of a hakama would be much more balanced and representative of her red top and blue bottom. I felt like the kiku motif of this vivid red kimono was reminiscent of the star motif of her outfit, and a navy hakama would have grounded the whole thing. Since I don’t own one, I took the liberty of photoshopping my purple one to navy. Of course, I had to bring in gold as the accent colour of the haneri and obi. The sword seemed like a foregone conclusion once everything came together, and what would Wonder Woman be without her golden lasso (or in this case, her golden obijime)?

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Overall, I feel like this was another ultimately successful cosplay-style kitsuke. I would love to wear this outfit to a convention or something at some point, along with a tiara and bracers. It’s the sort of outfit that would take a minute to “get”, but I think once people recognised it, it would go over really well.

Items used in this coordination

May the Fourth Be With You

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It’s no secret that a huge part of Star Wars’ visual identity owes much to traditional Japanese aesthetics. From Darth Vader’s samurai-like helmet to the kimono-inspired robes of both the Jedi and Sith, the influence is apparent in many facets of the Universe. May the Fourth is known as Star Wars Day to many people, a play on words about the date sounding so much like the traditional May The Force (be with you) greeting.

I had been wanting to do a Jedi-inspired kitsuke using beige and brown toned items ever since I did the Star Trek themed one a while back. What can I say, I am an equal opportunity fangirl! I found these two iromuji for a song a while back and thought today would be the perfect day to do it. I tried to keep the actual dressing manner quite traditional, aside from taking the liberty of using a second kimono as a long over-robe, instead of finding a haori. I wanted something I could try to fake the appearance of a hood with, and something that would flow to the ground. I used my spider obi flipped inside-out to get a rough-textured beige obi, and a brown mottled leather obijime to replicate the belts usually worn by Jedi. The finishing touch was one of my Jedi symbol earrings clipped to the obijime as a little decoration.

I really like how well this all came together. It’s really evident to see the kimono origins of the Jedi robes when it’s all set up like this, and now I’m very tempted to adapt this outfit to wear to a convention. Maybe I’ll hike up the hem and wear brown leggings and boots underneath it for comfort and ease of movement. Of course, this means I’ll have to get myself a lightsaber!

Items used in this coordination

Spookitsuke – Non-Compliant

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Until now, the outfits in this feature have been more thematic than actually costumey. Today’s coordination is a little bit different. This one is lifted straight out of the pages of one of my favourite current comic books, Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue deConnick. Without spoiling too much, the basic premise is that women who are deemed “non-compliant” are sent to an essentially lawless prison colony in space. Being deemed non-compliant can be as simple as being too loud, too big, too “unappealing” to men. It’s an incredibly interesting examination of gender and society. I would absolutely be deemed non-compliant and I revel in that.

There is one scene where one of the characters, in hologram form, plays the violin for her father. Typically, the inmates wear orange jumpsuits emblazoned with the NC logo, but in this scene she’s wearing a kimono with an NC obi. Due to the stylistic way she’s represented as a hologram everything is sort of pink and washed out, but I am going by the assumption that the kimono is the same colour as the jumpsuits. As soon as I saw this panel, I knew at some point I was going to try to reproduce the outfit.

I had big plans for this  costume. Unfortunately, life has a tendency to get in the way. Originally I was going to buy an orange iromuji and paint the obi. However, it’s nearly impossible to find an iromuji in prison-jumpsuit orange. Especially a cheap one, since I know I’d never wear something this colour aside from in this costume. As for the obi, I cut and sewed this inexpensive white obi into a tsuke to make it easier to work with, and I’d intended to stencil the Non-Compliant pattern onto it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any fabric paint that didn’t bleed all over and turn into a blurry grey mess. I fought with the whole thing for nearly two weeks – hence the lateness of this entry – and eventually figured I could put my image editing skills to use and at least make a composite of the outfit! Eventually I will make the obi and possibly wear it to a convention at some point in the future, but for now I think this works out quite well!

I know I’d initially said I had five outfits planned, but between my health being not great lately and this one being delayed, it’s going to be the final entry. I hope you enjoyed this little month-long venture into ways to wear kimono for Halloween!

Spookitsuke October 2016