Beautiful handmade kanzashi

I received these two gorgeous handmade hair accessories, or kanzashi, from Kornelia and I really encourage you to visit her Etsy shop.

Card Suits Hairband
As I’ve said many times before, I am a sucker for card suit motifs. I cannot wait to wear this with my card suit geta, spade obidome and a haneri I haven’t shown off yet. This is adorable, and I have to say I have never seen card suit motifs done using this method before. It’s so charming! I also really love that it’s on a hairband, so I can wear it no matter how short my hair might be.

Cards Kanzashi Hairband

Cards Kanzashi Hairband

Pastel pink ume clip

This is a much more traditional-looking kanzashi, but I don’t find it any less beautiful or charming. It’s such a delicate colour, but it’s a nice substantial size, so it doesn’t feel too twee or childish for someone of my age and height. The alligator clip needs a little more hair to grip than I currently have, but I’ll be growing it out a little bit again for the fall so I’ll be able to wear it during the winter, when it’s in season.
Pink Ume Kanzashi

Pink Ume Kanzashi

Punk-style yukata and obi set

This amazing set was a gift from Arian, because he is a goofball. I saw it on Rakuten and fell in love with the unexpected designs. They remind me of old-school tattoo flash or motorcycle art, sort of Von Dutch or Ed Hardy style. There are hot rod flames, skulls, roses, handcuffs, snakes, and lord knows what else. Every time I look at it I find new things to ogle. The obi is pretty awesome too – on the surface it looks like a pretty mundane pink obi with white butterflies, but on closer inspection, the butterflies (like those on the matching geta are actually decorated with human skulls. I think the fact that these are much more subtle than the vivid, cartoony skulls on the yukata are what make the items work so well together.

I can’t wait until it gets warm enough for me to wear this out somewhere! I think it’s an item that kimono and non-kimono people alike will appreciate.

Punky yukata & obi set
Punky yukata & obi set

Punky yukata & obi set
Punky yukata & obi set

Kimono for benefit concert

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a benefit concert for the Red Cross, featuring Arashi Daiko and Matsu Take Ensemble. Sadly, there were no photographs allowed during the concert so I have none to share with you, but let me assure you that it was a wonderful experience. The energy was great, the music was awesome, the dancers were adorable. If you are ever in the Montreal area and have the opportunity to see either of these groups, I highly recommend it.

Of course, I chose to wear a kimono to the concert. Sadly, I was literally the only person in the entire audience who did, but that did have some benefit. After the concert I went to thank some of the members of Arashi Daiko, and one of them informed that a few of them had noticed my outfit from the stage, and found it very inspiring and touching that I’d chosen to wear kimono. It literally brought tears to my eyes. I’m so glad I decided to wear one. I also got lots of lovely compliments from other people in the audience.

I decided to wear a beautiful olive-green karakusa komon from Naomi, and paired it up with my pink and white hakata to emphasize the pink in the pattern. I just happened to have an olive green obijime and mustard yellow obiage that matched perfectly, and couldn’t resist tying in the pink with my adorable new playing card geta. I also chose to use my new biyosugata (obi tying aid). Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to take photos before I left, so everything looks a little bit rumpled. However, I think for about an hour total in a car, and several hours in an auditorium seat, everything held up quite well.

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New geta haul

I’ve been wanting more “dressy” geta, ones I could wear with casual kimono or in inclement weather. These showed up on Yahoo Japan and Naomi, mutual enabler that she is, linked me. She bought a bunch as well, which made me feel better about splurging a bit.

Pink playing-card geta
Pink playing card geta
Pink playing card geta
Seriously, how cute are these? I just couldn’t pass them up. I love stuff with playing card motifs, and while I thought the pink might be a little twee, it’s actually a really perfect dusty pink that goes with far more things than I anticipated. They’re also surprisingly large, which is great for my gigantic feet.

Black skull butterfly geta
Black skull butterfly geta
Black skull butterfly geta
These actually came bundled with an epic yukata and obi that I will be posting about in the coming days, but I figured they were better suited to this post. The straps on them are a little shiny and cheap-looking, but they are insanely comfortable so I don’t think I’m going to bother changing them. What I really love about these is at first glance the design on the heels is a simple butterfly. Cute, but nothing particularly exceptional, right? Look again, particularly on the bottom hollows of the butterfly wings. Yes, those are hidden skulls. How freakin’ cool is that?!

Heeled geta with green shibori hanao
Stylish geta
These feel really nice and dressy to me, I love the shape of them. I also really like the hanao, but they’re quite overpowering so I actually plan to remove them and put them on the next pair of geta (see below), and replace them with some subtle red and grey hanao to make them a bit more versatile.

Curvy geta with flower design
Curvy geta with flowers
I absolutely love the unique shape of these, I find them very sensual. The lacquered flowers are also really charming. The hanao, however, are cheap and brittle, but that’s okay because I eventually plan on removing them and adding the green shibori ones from the pair above! I think they will look amazing and coordinate well with the flowers – better even than the pair currently on there.

Vintage pink ume komon outfit

With all the new things I’ve been buying lately, a lot of older pieces I never had the opportunity to wear have been sitting around neglected. Today I decided to remedy that, and discovered (much to my dismay) that I’ve gained so much weight lately due to sloth and massive water retention that a lot of these things just don’t fit me very well anymore. In this case, my loss is Naomi‘s gain, I know she loves this piece and it will definitely fit her better, so into the giveaway pile it goes.

That being said, I’m glad I managed to wear it for a few photos at least, because it’s such an incredibly fun and gorgeous piece. There’s a tiny bit of green accent on the plum branches, so I decided to emphasize that with a green hakata obi, green haneri, and some new geta with sexy green hanao.

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I also dressed a little unconventionally today – it was my first time using an eri-sugata (easy collar) and a susuyoke (half skirt) rather than a full juban. It worked really well because the kimono was so snug, the bulk of the juban was making it impossible to fit. I also love how easy it is to get the collar of the eri-sugata nice and low! It’s sort of sad that I know I’ll never be able to wear this kimono out, but I’m glad I finally got off my butt and put it on, and I’m glad it’s going to someone who will be able to wear it.