Bold Pop Art

 

I fell in love with this komon as soon as I saw a close-up of the pattern — stylised roses made up of tiny dots. It’s got a Charles Rennie Mackintosh art & crafts meets Roy Lichtenstein pop art feel to it and I couldn’t say no. I already have several other plans in mind for her, including something for Halloween, but I knew for her debut I absolutely had to honour the pop art vibes. This piece also happens to be absolutely enormous, which gives me a lot of potential for dressing people up in the future! Who knows, I might even fit into it myself thanks to a neat new thing I’ve purchased recently. But more on that later…

Breaking up one black and white pattern with another, we have my beloved hakata tsuke obi. This is one of those pieces that always cooperates., and I’m of the mind that hakata goes with everything. Such a bold and graphic combination needed an equally vibrant accent and what better than hot pink shibori? I do kind of wish I had an obijime that was solid pink too, but part of me likes the little hint of sparkle the silver brings.

I would like to try something more calm and muted with this soon and lean entirely in the opposite direction, but for now I’m very happy with how fun and punchy this coordination is! It also ended up looking a fair bit like the visual symptoms I get when I suffer from a migraine with aura. Entirely accidental, but hilarious.

Items used in this coordination

Art Gallery – New Wave Portrait by Mousetivity

About a month back, a friend posted an awesome portrait she’d had commissioned that brought to mind the iconic new wave pop art of Patrick Nagel. She linked me to the artist’s commission page and I bookmarked it for later perusal.

Fast-forward a few weeks and I’m still riding on the high of finding a kimono that fits me and happens to be in one of my favourite colours. I realised that the graphic design of the kimono, bold red lip, and funky glasses would be a perfect fit for the art style, so I contacted the artist and asked if it would be possible to replicate the pattern in his style.

He totally went above and put so much lovely detail into the kimono and my glasses, and even made the portrait larger than necessary to show it off to its best potential and included a background that helped balance the whole piece out. Be sure to view the full-sized version. He was an absolute pleasure to work with, and his prices start at a base five dollars, if you can believe that! If you’re interested in a funky and unique portrait like this, kimono or not, definitely check out Mousetivity on Fiverr.