Tag: spooky

Spooky Scary Skeleton Spectre

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This Skeleton Spectre tsuke-obi from Another Date Night had been calling my name for months. I finally bit the bullet and bought it with the intention of doing something for Halloween, so here we are!

I paired it with the rose motif komon I got recently, since I feel like it ties in beautifully with the roses on the obi, and as an added bonus looks a bit like spiderwebs from a distance. The haneri is actually a piece of quilting fabric I bought and I could not be happier about how perfectly they match! I just love how at first glance it looks like a nice and subdued normal outfit but when you look closer it’s a whole bundle of spooky elegance.

I hope you’re having a fantastic Halloween!

Spookybana

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Welcome to ~spooooky weeeek~. I originally intended it to be spooky month, but unfortunately life got in the way as it so often does. Instead, you’ll get lots of Halloween-themed content leading up to the weekend!

First up, Keith found this incredible stoneware hidden at the very back of a shelf at HomeGoods and it was the perfect vessel for a creepy arrangement. I knew I had some gnarled driftwood branches I fished out of Lytle Creek over the summer. Then I found these deep red-black sunflowers and a matching dahlia and the stage was set.

Typically I aim for natural lighting as much as possible to focus on the natural beauty of the flowers I’m working with, and normally I would never leave dropped petals in the photo, but in this case the high contrast and dramatic shadows work so much better than sunlight would have. The arrangement calls for it.

Stay tuned for more eerie offerings in the coming days!

Classy and Creepy

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Happy Halloween! An appropriate day to raise myself from the dead, I think. I’ve just been incredibly busy, travelling and working and whatnot, but I do have some stuff in the works for the next little while.

I knew I had to get this one up today, though. The “obi” is too perfect for a classy and creepy outfit. Funny thing is, it’s not an obi at all. It’s two table runners from Target! One wrapped twice around the body, and one for the musubi. I wanted to keep the rest of the outfit subtle but still halloween-y so my bat menuki obidome and spiderweb haneri, and then remembered I had this lovely piece of soft spiderweb mesh I found in a remnant bin at the fabric store. It makes the perfect shawl, doesn’t it?

I love how this outfit feels seasonal and creepy but totally wearable, and I also love how the two star pieces are both found items that have nothing to do with kimono. The orange accessories were the finishing touch, and they add just the right amount of pop.

Items used in this coordination

Jorogumo – Yokai Halloween 2018

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I’m fairly certain that to most people, Jorogumo is the creepiest of the alluring yokai I’ve chosen to feature in this project. A spider who can shape-shift into a beautiful woman to ensnare young men and feed off them is pretty terrifying, even if you’re not arachnophobic.

I have several friends who have done some absolutely stunning and very creepy Jorogumo outfits, complete with terrifyingly detailed makeup. I wanted to come at this with a more “normal” and ultimately wearable kitsuke that evoked things in a more subtle way.

Of course, I had to start with my spider obi. I’ve mentioned this before but I have such a love/hate relationship with this obi. It was the first piece I bought here in Montreal, and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I love the rough, textured feel of it, and of course the spiders. But it’s SUCH a pain to tie. The spiders are in locations that make it difficult to tie while keeping them visible both on the tare and the tesaki, and the texture makes it grip to itself in a way that makes it virtually impossible to adjust once I’ve wrapped it. But man, it’s so worth the effort!

The kimono is one of the pieces I bought at the bazaar over the weekend; it’s technically a motif of branches and fall foliage, but it feels like a spider-web, and the leaves are a nice callback to the leaves caught in the webs on the obi. It’s in rough shape, but it was easy enough to work with on the mannequin. I’ll repair it sooner or later. I attached a single spider patch to the front and I actually think this was quite effective. It blends in well with the kimono pattern and feels very natural.

Of course, I had to use my spider haneri, and some olive-green accessories tied everything together. I used a fun little spider ring as an obi-kazari because there’s never too many spiders.

Items used in this coordination

 

Subtly Spooky

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Happy Halloween, everyone! I had tons of fun last year doing a month’s worth of various Halloween coordinations but this month was too busy to devote myself to anything like that. I knew I had to do something though, and that’s where this suitably subtly spooky outfit came from!

The starting point was unsurprisingly the obi. Obi with seasonal, spooky, or gothic motifs tend to be quite popular, and as such, also quite expensive. This one cost me nearly nothing, since it’s the reverse side of an obi I already owned! I found this gorgeous iridescent gemstone skull sticker at a craft store. It’s actually a Martha Stewart brand product, of all things. Once I had the skull, I knew I wanted to decorate an obi with it but I was worried it would be too plain, but then I found a spool of adhesive ribbons and trims and I was all set.

I knew I wanted a fairly plain kimono so that the focus would be on the bling-tastic obi. I waffled over a few choices, debated buying something, and then I remembered I had this little beauty, a gift from the same dear friend who sent me the vintage kakeshita a while back. This piece is quite old, and quite fragile. The silk itself is very clearly sun-damaged, faded in spots, and has several tears and frays where the seams are coming apart. It’s also one of those odd hybrid kimono that we hardly ever see anymore. From a distance, it is (or was, before the fading) a solid uniform purple shade with a single crest, which would place is straight in iromuji territory. But up close, it’s shot through with gold stripes, which is not something you’d generally see in a modern iromuji. Whatever you want to call it, I’m so glad I finally found a way to use it!

The finishing touch for this outfit is a brooch I made a while back with supplies from the very same craft store. It wasn’t made with kimono or any particular event in mind, I was just feeling creative. But it works so well with this outfit, you’d think I’d done it on purpose! I tied everything together with black, red, and dark raspberry pink accessories and came up with what I think is a very spooky but also very wearable coordination!

Are you dressing in kimono this halloween? If so, please share photos!

Items used in this coordination