Lily made her first public kimono debut!

Lily’s kimono is from Ichiroya. It was a kimono for a 3 year old and in order to make it fit Miss Lily, who is only just over 2 months old, I had to sew up the excess length, put in shoulder tucks and also reduce the width of the sleeves to make the wingspan fit her. I then made a matching bonnet and bib to finish off the outfit.

My mom was over from Australia visiting for two weeks. She flew back last night - but I managed to dress her in kimono for the morning. I think I succeeded in creating an age appropriate, yet vintage chic ensemble. Mom really enjoyed wearing kimono and received many compliments!

Arian looked dashing in his indigo ensemble, as always, and as for myself? I unfortunately didn’t have the time to concentrate on an ensemble - so I threw this together literally five minutes before we left the house to go to the hotel we were staying at in San Francisco. It’s not my best ensemble…but it came out passable.

You can view larger versions on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/sets/72157623710821489/

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve had a chance to update KimonoAsobi.com, but, I’ve had a very good excuse for my absence!

After 23 hours of an all natural, drug free labour, Lily Isobel made her grand entrance into the world and into my arms and heart on my birthday.  That’s right - Lily and I share our birthdays! I’ll never receive a more perfect gift for the rest of my life.  Lily trumps them all.

Motherhood has been a little challenging - life as you knew it changes completely and utterly. People are not kidding when they say the first couple of months are the hardest, however, hard as they are, they are so rewarding.  Watching Lily become more aware of her surroundings, become stronger each day and to see her personality emerge is nothing short of amazing.  She already has a coy little smile going that is completely irresistible (she started at 2 weeks!) and eyes that will break hearts at a glance.  Every morning when we wake up, Lily is so full of smiles and giggles that it makes our hearts swell and overflow with love.  We forget, instantly, just how tired we are.  Lily loves to be read to, and we are currently finishing up The Little Prince.  Alice in Wonderland is likely to be the next story. Her current favourite activity is sleeping froggy style on daddy’s chest and she is already very opinionated, telling us what is on her mind with various “coos” and “oooos”.  Of course, we listen and respond in kind.

“So, will we see baby kitsuke?” you ask.  Of course!  The only problem though is that:

a)  Lily is still to small for any kimono I have for her or can find; and
b) I haven’t been able to find the time to make a kimono for her in itty bitty size yet!

Hopefully I’ll be able to put something together for her by the time Cherry Blossom Festival rolls around!

As for myself - kitsuke is going to be interesting.  I’ve already returned to my pre-pregnancy shape, however, because I’m nursing my bust is, well, for the lack of better words, huge!  It presents two challenges for me:

1. Getting the smaller, vintage kimono wrapped correctly around my chest; and
2. Nursing!

I’m not quite sure what to do about kimono and nursing.  Obviously, it is completely doable, as many generations of Japanese women have done so, but for myself - I’m faced with a slight dilemma.  Most of my kimono are already considerably smaller than they should be for my height due to their antique/vintage nature, so I don’t have much fabric to play around with to try and wear them looser around the bust for easy access.  Does anyone out there have experience with wearing kimono and nursing at the same time?  If you do - please share your tips!

It is looking more likely that the alternative will be for me to pump right before dressing and to feed Lily expressed milk from a bottle while I’m wearing kimono.  We are currently working on slowly introducing a bottle to her for those times when I’m not available (work, etc) but of course, already being strongly opinionated at such a young age, Lily very clearly prefers the REAL thing! I’ll be sure to update with how it works out either way.

Well, Lily is demanding my attention, so I’ll leave you with my current favourite picture from last Wednesday!

Yes, it is already obvious that we will be great mischief makers together!

At 27 weeks, I went for nice, sweet and subdued….

For 30 weeks, I went for LOUD and OBNOXIOUS. Please meet my pink and turquoise tachibana meisen kimono and my obnoxious purple and yellow shibori haori.

Larger photo on Flickr >>

Larger photo on Flickr >>
I’m really excited about this kimono. I don’t have many Taisho meisen pieces, but the ones I do have are really quite bold and distinct.  This particular kimono is also unusually long and wide for being Taisho meisen. My husband, Arian fought valiantly for this kimono on eBay, so I figured I should probably wear it for him today!

I do have to admit, the ensemble ended up being louder than originally intended (if you can believe that). The weather was very cool and we were going to be outside in the cold for a few hours for a taiko event, so I really needed to wear a haori. This was the only haori I had that remotely went with the ensemble. My preference would have been a nice blue haori in similar tones….alas….I do not currently have one in my collection.

As per usual, I found pregnant kitsuke to be pretty easy….the only real challenge is….finding Taisho kimono in my collection that actually wrap around my belly these days!

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to sit down and do anything fun with kimono. Work, life and pregnancy have been keeping me terribly busy! Today, though, despite my horrendous allergies (I hate plant life at the moment), I finally got a chance to dress in an ensemble I’ve been wanting to do for a while. The last time I was able to dress was when I was 15 weeks pregnant - now I’m 27 weeks!

I actually found, much to my surprise, that kitsuke wasn’t any harder than normal - and I was doing it with a kimono I cannot get an ohashori out of.

The only real hurdles I had was:
1. My juban didn’t want to wrap around as much as it usually does - so I had to play with the collar a little.

2. My himo and datejime are soooo short on me now! Haha.

The things I did differently due to pregnancy:
1. I wore my kimono bra with my sarashi wrapped over the top of it. I also wrapped the sarashi down around and below my belly to help support it (it’s 10 meters long - enough to go around!). I looked like a mummy - but it was VERY comfortable! I also had to double up on the padding to fill in the gap between my bust and belly.

2. I tied all my himo directly under my bust, which, again, was very comfortable.

3. I used a biyosugata for my otaiko. I swear, a biyosugata should be every pregnant woman’s best friend!

Other than that, everything else was pretty much kitsuke as per usual!

Larger photo on Flickr!

Larger photo on Flickr!

Larger photo on Flickr!

Larger photo on Flickr!

Larger photo on Flickr!

For those curious - here is a photo of my belly today outside of kimono, and my usual weekday garb (photo from last Friday).

Today we had  our anatomy ultrasound. I am very excited to announce that we are having a little girl!

You know what this means, right?

Lots of cute, adorable, baby Taisho kimono to fill our closets!

Of course, most importantly though, is that the doctors have stated she is doing excellent! Also, isn’t her little nose just the cutest thing?

Sea Gull Detail:

More detailed photographs in my collection on Flickr

Front Detail:

Lining:

Flower details:

More detailed photographs in my collection on Flickr

I’ve always been a fan of indigo - there’s just something so luscious about the colour I simply cannot resist.  I also go crazy for stripes - so obviously, this kimono caught my eye immediately!  Of course, the placement of bamboo on the sleeves, and the bold, cheerful patterns along the hem helped roping me in.

Front Detail:

What I find particularly fascinating about this kimono is that it shows an interesting evolution in design and formality from Taisho era to modern kitsuke.  Today, stripes are considered an informal pattern. Seeing they repeat over the kimono - they are generally classed as komon, which is a step above the formality of yukata, but considerably less formal than iromuji, tsukesage, houmongi, iro tomesode and kuro tomesode.  While this kimono has stripes, it is obviously a crested houmongi.  I have another Taisho kimono which again, is a formal kimono (3 crested and a matching dounuki), yet, again is striped.

After reviewing many vintage postcards and photographs, I’ve noticed that striped houmongi and tsukesage appeared to be quite popular during Taisho era, but seemed to have died out shortly after.  Here is a scan from a book that contains photography from Meiji and Taisho - this particular photograph is dated Taisho 11 (1922). Notice both ladies are wearing striped houmongi and/or tsukesage?

Was it simply a fashion fad over a few years?  Did they have the same level of formality as unstriped houmongi/tsukesage?  Did a certain age group wear them?

I feel very fortunate to include this stunning kimono in my collection.  Spider web motifs are usually difficult to find in general, however, finding a kimono that has spider web rinzu is exceptionally rare.

The base colour is a gorgeous, deep, green based teal.  Unfortunately, the colour is off in my photographs, but the colour swatch in the bottom corner is a close representation.

Spider web rinzu detail:

Today was quite a challenge dressing in this kimono!

I fell in love with this kimono at first sight, and while technically, it is way to short for me to wear - I really wanted to add it to my collection.

Had I not been 15 weeks pregnant, I probably would have had a considerably easier time dressing and actually achieving a small ohashori under the obi. But due to my growing belly and *ahem* bust, I couldn’t even get a small ohashori!

With a lot of padding under the bust area, some creative tying, and the use of a safety pin - I think I managed to dress respectable enough. Unfortunately - I couldn’t have my collar as low at the nape of the neck as I normally do - but, that’s the sacrifice one must make with such a short kimono.

I know I’m normally all down with coloured, embroidered haneri and fancy obiage/obijime, but for this ensemble, I strongly felt that all white accessories (well, the obijime was mostly white) would be the most appropriate. I’m quite happy with how it turned out and I received many compliments in Japantown today!

You can kind of see my baby bump here. I do have to say, it’s a lot more noticeable in yofuku than wafuku though!

Back view:

Close up of Obi

I apologize for not posting for a while, but I’ve had a good reason. Now that I feel safe talking about it in public, seeing I’ve made it to the second trimester (I’m 15 weeks now!) - yes! Arian and I are expecting our first child! There’s always been a lot of talk on the Immortal Geisha forums about kitsuke during pregnancy - and now, I finally have a chance to actually put that very topic into real live action.

When I was 9 weeks - I attended a small Japanese festival to watch my taiko group perform. I decided that I would take the opportunity to do my first pregnant kitsuke…and wear my first full ro ensemble of the year!

Ro Taisho era purple lily komon.
Ro Taisho era mandarin duck juban.
Ro hakata obi.
Ro embroidered haneri.

Unfortunately none of the ro obiage and summer weave obijime I had matched with the ensemble - so I wore regular ones instead. Rather than bright bold colours like I normally choose - I decided to go for softer pinks that were in the lilies and my collar.

The very first thing I learnt was that despite not really having a baby bump at 9 weeks (bloat doesn’t count), I still discovered that nothing…NOTHING likes to be tied remotely around my waist. So everything had to be tied up right under my bust instead. Which actually turned out to be really quite comfortable - and gave that complete high waisted Taisho look!

Other than that - I had no other issues or discomfort wearing kimono. I’m sure that will change as I face the changing shape of my body. I’m starting to show a small bump now, so it should be interesting navigating around it.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the photos. I think this may be one of my all-time favourite ensembles!

Over the years I’ve amassed a rather large obijime collection - with a large number of them being antique obijime.
Unfortunately, more often than not with antique obijime - the tassels at the end are an absolute knotted, matted, torn mess when I receive them. Having the tassels like this can make what used to be a lovely obijime look tacky and exceptionally sloppy and unattractive when worn.

So - I decided to start Project Obijime. Due to how many obijime I have - I need to create proper storage for them, but most importantly - I want to take the time to restore all my antique obijime to their former glory and to protect the tassels on all my obijime.

I decided to take step-by-step photographs on how I tackled this task for all those out there who may need to do the same thing. If you have any questions - please don’t hesitate to ask!

Please visit my Flickr account to view the full photos and instructions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/sets/72157616967547643/

Please visit my Flickr account to view the full photos and instructions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/sets/72157616967547643

My husband and I went to San Francisco’s Cherry Blossom Festival this past weekend and had tons of fun! It gave me the oportunity to wear my two “new” kimono: my Taisho komon furisode hikizuri, and my crazy Taisho “shishi inside yabane” komon!

This was the first time I’ve ever worn furisode…or done furisode kitsuke on myself. Thankfully it wasn’t too shabby. While this furisode is hikizuri - there was no way I was going to wear it trailing outside! So I just dressed with an ohashori.

You can’t see it clearly in these photos - but the pale area of the obiage is a really gorgeous soft, lemon yellow - which happened to match the yellow in the furisode perfectly, along with the yellow in the obijime!

The fukuro obi I chose to wear was vintage - which meant it was a tad bit shorter than modern fukuro - so I couldn’t get a more elaborate fukura suzume out of it. I think it came out relatively ok, though.

My obidome was a $3 brooch I won from eBay!

“Lounging” pose!

My hubby and I doing purikura at PikaPika!

Sunday - more purikura with my friend and hubby!

My kimono is crumpled from being in the car for an hour, driving home from JapanTown - but, it’s the only full length photo I have of my awesome shishi yabane komon.

Obi all crumpled due to above mentioned car ride….alas!

You can see a few more photos and larger versions in my Flickr account!

For the 40th Anniversary International Taiko Festival this year, I dressed 4 girls and myself in kimono, both days, for the flower presentations at the end of the concert. Photos to come, but for now…getting ready to speed dress girls during the concert…

We Can Do It!

(Photo taken by the lovely Grace, who endured me bundling her up in furisode 2 days in a row)

I was contacted by Marie Claire China a few months ago to do an interview for a special they were putting together “Secret in Women’s Closet”.

They wanted to feature me with my tansu and kimono.

It was just published - on the 10th of October and they actually put the spread up online on their website!

http://www.marieclairechina.com/dd2/dd2.htm

You can see the original photographs sent to them here:

http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi

Read the rest of this entry »

Believe it or not - I didn’t wear kimono for Halloween! Instead - I decided to dress as Edie Sedgewick, Andy Warhol’s muse.

Now, I know Edie’s trademark was black tights….however - with the rest of my outfit already being black, it wouldn’t have been any different to my regular every day clothing - so hounds tooth tights were a-go! Oh, I also bleached my hair from black to uh…strawberry blond for a bit more authenticity

Larger photo at Flickr! 

I’ve started an “IG Kitsuke Challenges” sub-forum over on ImmortalGeisha - to help encourage people in experimenting with their ensembles:

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewforum.php?f=32

Today I finally had a chance to experiment for the “What’s Black, White & Red All Over” Challenge.

There are already some great outfits posted by other members:

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?t=11785

My Entries:

SUMMER ENSEMBLE:

Flickr Link:
http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2935294449/in/set-72157607972885691

WINTER ENSEMBLE

Flickr Link:
http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2935295303/in/set-72157607972885691

http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2935295817/in/set-72157607972885691

http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2935296555/in/set-72157607972885691

Flickr Link:
http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2936152890/in/set-72157607972885691

I often have people asking me my opinion in regards to wearing kimono without ohashori. It’s also a question often asked on my forums - with this particular thread being the main one:

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?t=10273

My opinion is - I prefer to wear a kimono I can get an ohashori out of - it’s just a lot less stress when dressing and also helps the kimono sit nicer. And, being 165cm tall - not awfully tall, but tall enough - it’s always nice to have kimono that fit “properly” without having to worry about “faking” the ohashori or forgoing it completely.

HOWEVER

I collect kimono specifically from the Greater Taisho Era…which can make it awfully hard to find kimono long enough to create a proper ohashori, or even to fake it for that matter. These kimono are often so gorgeous, and in amazing condition for their age, it is such a shame to not wear them just because they are a tad short. So I often wear kimono without ohashori and have done so for quite a few years. Some of my ohashori-less ensembles:

http://www.kimonoasobi.com/?p=102

http://www.kimonoasobi.com/?p=101

http://www.kimonoasobi.com/?p=76

Okay, well - to say I go completely without an ohashori would be a fib. On a technicality - I do wear ohashori with these kimono - but it’s so tiny and hidden under my obi you don’t see it. Unless you are super slim, the likelyhood that you could get away with wearing kimono with absolutely no sort of ohashori is narrow, as you need to be able to adjust the kimono to sit nicely over your derriere, hips and thighs. An ohashori, even the tiniest of one, allows for the adjustment of fabric to make it look right.

Misuchi of Kimono and Kitsuke recently was lucky enough to meet Mamechiyo-san and discussed with her kimono as daily wear - and touched upon the no ohashori issue:

http://kimonoandkitsuke.blogspot.com/2008/09/every-day-kimono.html

As you can see - even Mamechiyo-san has the same opinion!

Along with what Mamechiyo had to say, I’m seeing more often than not in kitsuke coordinate books and blogs focusing on antique and vintage kimono women wearing kimono minus the ohashori. And just yesterday, I received a new kitsuke book that has instructions on how to wear too short kimono!

Flickr link for full sized scan:

http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2935115022/in/set-72157607958553262

Flickr link for full sized scan:

http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/2935116128/in/set-72157607958553262

With all that said, to ohashori or not? As long as your kitsuke is impeccable (which shows the lack of ohashori was a conscious choice, and not a mistake) - you should be fine. There’s no point letting those gorgeous pieces of art sit in your closet, never seeing the light of the day again, right?

So I say, GO FOR IT!

————————————————————————–

Book information:
きもの入門 - きものの基本がよくわかる
Online translation of title:
“A guide to a kimono The foundations of a kimono are known well.”
ISBN 4-418-05305-0

Arian and I got married on the 26th of September at Hakone Gardens.

It was a very private, beautiful ceremony…and of course…I wore kimono!

Larger photos are at my flickr account here:

http://flickr.com/photos/kimonoasobi/

Lining:

More detailed photographs in my collection on Flickr