Black MonoKimono - Non-Mofuku

I finally was able to do my long-time dream ensemble! An all black non-mofuku kitsuke!

I have struggled for years with how to make this kitsuke a reality. I debated whether or not to alter mofuku items to fit the theme or to hunt out specifically black but non-mofuku items. I decided on the latter. Truly, the kimono itself was the most challenging part. Most black kimono are kuromontsuki and are far too formal what I had in mind. Other mostly black items have very bright patterns that detract from the aesthetic I was aiming for. This komon that I used for the ensemble was one that I had custom made (due to my "larger than average Japanese size"... that would be a US L typically...). It took several months for it to be tailored, so while it is awase, and it is now long past awase season where I live, I figured I could give it a go in my well air-conditioned apartment. 

This was the final result:

Admittedly, some of the pieces are a little less black than the others, and I wore white tabi because I’m not a fan of black or patterned tabi usually. The hardest thing to see may be the obijime as it actually has small red threads throughout. 

The obi might be mistaken as having metallic threads, but it is actually cleverly woven to trick the eye into thinking that. It is actually just black and grey. It is one of two authentic Nishijin-ori nagoya obi in my collection that I had made-to-order, and it is one of my favorites.

The only plain black item is the haneri, but as white haneri are typically worn with mofuku, this should not be mistaken for funeral wear. 

I’m really happy with the ensemble, and I can’t wait to wear it again!

March Fudangi Friday with Sakura

🌸🌸🌸 Belated Fudangi Friday with blooming sakura 🌸🌸🌸

This is a cotton kimono with a lace overlay share fukuro obi, mint green obiage, and brown obijime. The sakura are blooming here so I wanted to do an ode to them (pink, green, and brown for petals, leaves, and branches) without outshining them.

Handmade Kimono

For my last week of maternity leave, I really wanted to finish a sewing project. I bought the fabric for this kimono a long time ago, but I have only gotten around to making it now because the baby has started going to daycare. So here's the finished product (the color is most accurate in the close-up photos). It's a cotton-linen blend with white flower embroidery. I did a casual pairing with a hanhaba obi just for picture purposes. The obi is tied in 二色鼓結び (futairo tsuzumi musubi).

Yukata for Belated Gofuku no Hi 2017

I missed Gofuku no Hi since I was out of town and sick (still sick though), so here's my super late contribution! This townscape yukata arrived today so I paired it with a reversible red and black kingyo hanhaba obi. This musubi required an obijime, so I used a green and white checkerboard sanbuhimo with a silver dragonfly obidome.

Pink Hakama Kitsuke

Quick post for today: pink hakama kitsuke! I used my blue baby duck haneri with this deep purple butterfly komon and a light yellow hanhaba obi.

Kodomo no Hi (こどもの日) 2017

I put together this ensemble in honor of kodomo no hi (こどもの日) tomorrow. The kimono is pink cotton seersucker, and I made the matching hanhaba obi and haneri out of cotton nursery fabric with a pattern of baby ducks. It's a rather lightweight ensemble, but our weather has been around 80 degrees F (about 27 degrees C) for the past few weeks. This was also my first time doing musubi with a sanjuuhimo, but I'm happy with the result!

Hydrangea Yukata and Too Small Heko Obi

Today's kitsuke was a lesson in problem solving! I ordered a heko obi for this yukata, and the dimensions were listed incorrectly. Instead of the adult size that was listed, I received a child's size... It was a good buy so I figured it was not worth returning. At first I thought I might just use it as a puchi-heko obi or even for fabric, but then I decided to see if I could find a way to tie it. One of my favorite books (ファブリック帯の本) has many ways to tie heko obi, including using long scarves, so I modeled it after those musubi. I also used a hanhaba obi tying tool (kind of like biyosugata but for hanhaba) to help provide support. I hope you like it!

First Postpartum Kitsuke - Spring Edition

After just having a baby, I can't really do kitsuke on myself, so out comes the trusty sewing mannequin! I got this cotton kimono and obi fairly recently and was dying to see them together. I tried to use colors in the obi for this ensemble to help keep the spring look, since an orange kimono could easily lean toward autumn.

30 Weeks Pregnant Kitsuke

For most of my pregnancy, I have avoided doing any kitsuke - even for practice. With hormones making me generally not feel well for a good amount of the time and (of course) an ever-changing body to deal with, it just felt like too much. However, this past weekend, I had a good reason to try to get dressed in kimono. It was the annual local Japanese food event, "Oishii Japan", and my tea ceremony group was asked to do a short presentation. The outfit I ultimately ended up choosing was not something I would usually wear for tea, but I went with it considering it was a casual event, and I had a limited number of things that still fit and would be comfortable enough. 

2016 Recap

I apologize for the long hiatus on this blog. 2016 was a pretty bad year for me kimono-wise just because I didn't have the ability (surgery and really rough 1st trimester of pregnancy) or the opportunity to wear them as much as I would have liked. I made a small collage of the outfits I wore or styled.

The most pervasive theme I notice is that I focused more strongly on casual outfits. Cottons and tsumugi were favorites, and bold obiage were used to make the kimono more youthful and modern. There were a few colored haneri and tabi uses early in the year, but since most of the later occasions were more formal or for tea ceremony practice, I stuck with mostly white. As usual, I pretty much stayed away from vintage and kimono hime. (They look great on many people, but just not on me!) The loudest outfit by far was the playing card yukata that I styled for a fashion show in July. It really can't be seen in the photo, but there is a small silver dice obikazari, and the obidome is a roulette wheel. The last kimono I wore this year was a blue shibori hitoe kimono for a shamisen performance. Technically, it's a pregnancy kitsuke since I was 13 weeks at the time, but I wasn't really showing then so fitting was essentially the same.

Unfortunately, I don't see myself posting too frequently in the coming year as well due to having a baby on the way. I hope to have at least one pregnancy kitsuke to show before it's all over though. And who knows? Maybe I'll have some cute baby kitsuke in the future in addition to my own!

Casual Hitoe Tsumugi Ensemble

Today, I met with a friend for tea, so I chose casual ensemble: a grey striped tsumugi hitoe with summer accessories. It's already hot enough for full ro/sha here, but I decided to stick slightly closer to the traditional calendar by continuing to wear hitoe today. Despite the heat and humidity being so high, this kimono kept me pretty cool!

Belated Post - Birthday Kitsuke

I did this coordination about a month ago, but forgot to post it here. I decided to do a coordination for my birthday, and I chose to use several new items. The beige kimono (one of my "bucket list" kimono!) is a cotton-linen blend and is so comfortable! The obi has big peonies that remind me of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. I chose turquoise accessories for this particular coordination, but I think it would be a match for other colors as well. The obi is tied in tsunodashi musubi, and since the obi has no core, it's a little more curved than I would like, but oh well. 

wink emoticon

Valentine's Day 2016

My husband and I never do much for Valentine's Day (hectic and too commercial), but I did want to wear kimono today. Today's outfit is a cotton kimono with grey ichimatsu pattern, pink chirimen obi with ume design, red chirimen haneri, red chirimen obiage with sparkly hearts, purple and white lace sanbuhimo, purple rose obidome, and purple tabi. The obiage is done in a style more like what one would wear with furisode, but I really wanted to show off the hearts!

No pictures of my face or hair because it all looked terrible, haha!

First Tea Ceremony Presentation of 2016

Even though our tea ceremony group is much more casual than others in the USA, we still try to have hatsugama every year. Due to our sensei's schedule, we were unable to hold the event this year unfortunately. (For those who don't know, our sensei moved to the east coast a few years ago and has been flying back about once per month to teach us.) However, we were asked to do a presentation for the Oishii Japan food event. Sensei had originally planned to fly in and lead the presentation, but with the blizzard last week, his flight was cancelled. I was asked to lead in his place.

I have done several of these kinds of presentations in the past, so I wasn't too nervous from a stage-fright standpoint. But since I had surgery back in December, I have not been able to practice very much. I felt rusty, and that's what actually made me nervous. Despite my fears, the presentation went very well. My husband provided narration (since this group was unfamiliar with tea ceremony) and one of our other members was my main guest. Two other members assisted some in the background.

And now on to the pictures! I was really excited to wear this iromuji. I bought it last year, but I was waiting for the perfect time to wear it. This event fit the bill in my opinion. The colors in my own crappy iPhone pictures are very washed out, but the two of the actual presentation taken by Frank Chin are very true-to-life.

First Post-Surgery Kitsuke!

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to wear kimono for the first time since my surgery back in December. Because I was working in the dealer's room at our local anime convention, I wanted to wear something comfortable. I chose the red denim kimono with the cream kitty hanhaba obi. I tied the obi in a simple kai no kuchi, secured with a black obijime with little red threads. The haneri is a plain black chirimen, and the obi kazari is my little purple kokeshi charm. The purple tabi are ones that I recently dyed, and I'm happy to report that there were no color bleeding or fading issues! The zori have a black vinyl bottom with blue and brown plaid hanao. It's only barely visible at the back of the sleeves, but you might spy my black nagajuban - one of my favorites for its unique color.

While I feel like I did fairly well with my kitsuke despite the long hiatus and new kimono, the issue I did have to deal with (fairly unsuccessfully) was my surgical site. You probably can't see it in the pictures (I can only just see it myself), but it's on the front right side of my neck (about 3 inches long). The skin there is still very sensitive and fragile, so placing the collars was a major challenge. In the end, I had to show less haneri in order to get it in a fairly comfortable spot. I still had issues with it rubbing, but it was fine most of the day. I have a tea ceremony presentation to assist with this coming weekend, so I'll have to try again and hope it all looks ok!

KimoNovember 2015 - Week 1

This is my week 1 kitsuke for KimoNovember. Usually, the premise of KimoNovember to wear kimono every day this month (or as many days as possible), but with a hectic schedule, I can only do weekly ensembles.

For the first ensemble, I went with a "casual and cozy" theme. Teal komon with ginkgo, yukiwa, and sakura, deep purple ichimatsu hanhaba obi tied in karuta musubi (not pictured), salmon and lavender obijime tied in fuji musubi, pale blue haneri with white lace overlay, pale yellow shigoki obi, silver leaves necklace used as obi kazari, tabi with black cats, and multi-color leaves zori. This komon is plenty long for my height, so the shigoki is not to cover the lack of ohashori, but just a stylistic choice.

This is honestly not my neatest kitsuke because I wasn't feeling quite myself yesterday. Kudos to my husband who got me to smile and take a picture with the cat to cheer me up a little. I'm hoping the upcoming ensemble will be a little neater (and I'll be in a better mood)!