Tag: montreal

Montreal JCCC Fashion Show 2023

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Ooof. No, that year in the title is not a typo. I’m just three tanukis in a michiyuki when it comes to following up on things.

In the spring of 2023, I was invited to participate as a stylist and vendor in Everyone Can Kimono!, a fashion show and event put on by the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre here in Montreal. It aimed to encourage a love of kimono and show that it really is for anyone who is passionate about it! Being a giant awkward white woman, I was humbled and honoured to be considered. And yes, I stuck out like a sore thumb in the dressing areas, but I was welcomed openly and encouraged by all the other stylists, which was so lovely.

Sasa and Yurie did an incredible job organising everything, and helped me find some absolutely fantastic and gorgeous models to show off the ensembles I put together. I got to feature some of my favourite vintage pieces, including a few I’d never been able to use before on a person or mannequin. My models were all so gracious and enthusiastic and dressing them all was an absolutely dream.

Here are my lovely models. Due to the casual vintage nature of most of these coordinates as well as their unfamiliarity with kimono, I went with a looser and less restricted style of kitsuke, which I think worked perfectly. Don’t get me wrong, I love the tight, padded, nearly-regimented style of the modern kimono-school variety, but there’s something so effortless about more relaxed dressing that helps remind us that these used to be everyday garments.

Don’t they all look amazing and poised, and like they’ve been wearing kimono for years? They were so good!

Of course, there were plenty of other stylists who are all way more skilled and visionary than I am, and it was humbling to be included in such a talented group. Here’s a gallery of all the other fantastic outfits. It was an incredible blend of traditional, modern, and totally alternative stylings.

There was also a Q&A session at the end of the show, and I got roped into helping answer a few questions, particularly about vintage kitsuke. Some of the medication I’m on makes me particularly susceptible to heat, so behold me in all my fat sweaty glory. Yes, that is a tenugui with lemons on my head. It’s called fashion, look it up.

And some lovely group shots of all the models, as well as the whole team of stylists, honoured guests, and JCCC staff! I managed to avoid being in these because I was setting up a booth to sell off parts of my collection it was time to say goodbye to. A few pieces found good homes, and I hope their new owners cherish them like I did.

This has gone on to be a yearly event, but I’ve been in California for the past two years and haven’t been able to participate or attend. If you’re ever in Montreal in the spring, keep an eye out for announcements and definitely try to come see the show if you can! Maybe one day the timing will work out and I’ll be able to be involved again, but either way I still urge you to support small local kimono initiatives like this whenever possible 🙂

Montreal Kimono Club September Meet-Up

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Yesterday, a group of local kimono collectors got together for a casual meet-up to celebrate the end of Summer. We started in a quiet little park near my place, then to Le Petit Tokebi, a combined Korean and Japanese restaurant, for dinner. We finished up at Ca Lem, an ice cream place I love to bits because they make vegan options like sorbet and coconut milk ice cream so I can eat there and not die. I’m a big fan of not dying.

The timing of our event was perfect. Thursday and Friday were incredibly windy and rainy, to the point that nearby areas were under a tornado watch! Today is cold and damp. Yesterday, somehow, the kimono gods graced us with beautiful sun and just enough of a breeze for kimono to be comfortable. We really lucked out.

I wore my new-ish teal komon from Kimonomachi. I really love having kimono that fit me so well. Eventually I will buy a third one of these, when I have some money to spare. My initial plan was a red nagoya obi  but I realised that would have been nearly the same as the last time I wore it. I then remembered I have this cream-and-red hakata obi with asanoha that’s an absolute perfect match for the kimono! I went with fairly plain accessories otherwise, since the kimono is so bold already.

(before anyone asks – yes these two group shots were composited in Photoshop. We had nobody to capture all of us together so I cobbled together two photos)

One of the things I love about these meet-ups is the wide variety kimono and kitsuke. It’s so fun to see everyone express their personalities and personal sense of style. Kimono is so great for that – for garments that are essentially all the same shape, there’s so much that can be conveyed through colour, fabric, and motif.

Dinner was lovely too. The place was really sweet and quiet with a great atmosphere, and the staff all seemed really pleased by our outfits. There were also these adorable miniatures behind our table, and you know I had to grab some photos!

By the time dinner was done, it was cooling down a fair bit but that sure wasn’t going to stop us from getting our ice cream! I’ll be so sad at the end of September when Ca Lem closes for winter 🙁

It was a really great day, I had lots of fun with friends both familiar and new, and I can’t wait for our next meet-up!

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Pop! Montreal Marché des Possibles

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Tonight I was invited to the opening night of Marché des Possibles, a local annual event put on by Pop! Montreal. You might remember my post from last summer about the Yatai MTL! food festival, which is one of the themed weekends that’s part of this event.

They contacted me through here so I figured it would be a great excuse to wear a kimono, but it’s currently waaaay too hot for either of my synthetic hitoe and they’re really all that fit me at the moment. So I decided to improvise and wear my pink lace haori over a summery tunic with a sakura design. I love how this looks; I feel like I represented Kimono Tsuki well but felt breezy and comfortable and was I was much better able to enjoy the evening!

Marché des Possibles is held every weekend between June 22 and July 29, and features a lovely variety of local craftspeople, vendors, and restaurants. I found a beautiful pair of earrings that happened to perfectly match my dress from Mi Florcita that are made of real pressed flowers in resin, and a gorgeous crescent moon ceramic pendant by Creations Lucie Jolicoeur and you all know I can’t pass up a good moon! I think this will also look really cool as a sort of improvised obidome. I’ll be sure to try it out in the near future.

I will definitely be going back to the event on the weekend of July 19, as that’s when this year’s Yatai! is. I’m hoping to wear one of my yukata, if the weather and my body cooperate, and I’ll post lots of photos. If you’re in or around the Montreal area this summer, give this event a visit.

O-Hanami & Taiko at the Montreal Botanical Gardens

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On Sunday, a few members of the Montreal kimono club got together at the Montreal Botanical Gardens to have our own little O-hanami. The climate here isn’t ideal for sakura, but we’ve got lots of crabapples which look almost as lovely and are almost as transient and ethereal.

I had a blast. We met lots of awesome people, posed for a bunch of photos, and generally had a great time. Although it was slightly marred by me tripping at one point and pulling the hanao out of my zori. I spent the bulk of the day walking in tiny awkward steps, gripping my shoe with my toes to prevent falling off. Eventually I just gave up and walked around in my tabi, since they’d gotten dirty when I tripped initially. A bit gauche, I know, but better than spraining something. Especially since I’m still recovering from falling down the stairs a few weeks back.

This post is going to be incredibly image-heavy, because everything was lovely and also we’re a bunch of silly people who like to ham things up. Click through for kimono, taiko drumming, and a lovely ikebana show!

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Festival Yatai MTL! and yukata outing

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What’s this? Another outing for yours truly?! It feels good getting back into the swing of things.

This weekend a friend was in town, and the first Yatai MTL! street food festival was happening, so we decided to go in yukata. Since she was visiting from a ways away, I lent her one of my yukata and obi, and I’m glad to see it getting some use.

One of the awesome things about Montreal is the sheer number of awesome events and festivals that happen during this summer. This year is no exception, because the city is celebrating her 375th birthday. This weekend alone, aside from the festival we went to, had the Formula E electric car races, Just For Laughs!, the International Fireworks competition, and quite possibly other small ones I’m not even aware of. Because of all this, all the public transit in the city was free. However, because of this, the public transit in the city was also the busiest I’ve ever seen it. We were delayed getting out, and the metro was a horrible swamp of humanity. However, we made it to our first stop without too much drama. We began the afternoon by fortifying ourselves with lovely microbrew beers from Dieu Du Ciel, an awesome local brewery. My friend’s brother came with us and was kind enough to act as photographer for the day.

Thus fortified, we headed to the festival on foot. It was a gorgeous day, and yukata were perfectly comfortable and breezy. The walk to the park where the festival was being held was short, and we got there uneventfully. That’s when things went sideways. This was the festival’s first year, and they were clearly massively unprepared for the volume of people attending. We got there less than an hour after opening, and the lineups for food were over two hours long, and they had already run out of several dishes. We worked in shifts, taking turns in the line, and eventually got our okonomiyaki, which was the only dish available at the kiosk we got to. It was absolutely delicious, I will give them that! I also found a vegan mocha popsicle, which warmed my shrivelled little dairy-intolerant heart. However, considering how long we’d been waiting it wasn’t nearly enough food, and none of us were willing to wait another two hours we decided to find a restaurant to fill us up.

After another quick jaunt on uncomfortably crowded public transit we found our way to Kurobuta Izekaya & Ramen-Ya, an awesome homey Japanese pub-style eatery. I got two of my standby favourites, agedashi tofu and takoyaki, and they were both delicious. My dinner companions both got ramen, and I tried a bit, it was delicious too. If you’re looking for a comfortable, entirely unpretentious Japanese eatery in the Mount Royal area of Montreal, I highly recommend a stop here.

The day may have been waaaaay longer than we’d anticipated, and there was an awful lot of frustrated, cramped, waiting around but in the end good food with good company in adorable outfits made it all worthwhile!

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