First Yukata Kitsuke of 2015

My new yukata arrived yesterday, so I did a quick coordination with it. I used a black hanhaba obi with a shibori tatewaku pattern on it. It's rather short so the musubi is kind of small. I added a little dragonfly obi kazari and posed with my new woven bag. (Please ignore my hair and makeup, because it's just what I had on from work that day.)

 I'm so glad that warm weather is finally here, and I can do more kitsuke such as this!

New Bag and Ombré Hanhaba Obi

I keep adding more things to my summer collection! I blame The New Kimono for this; if you haven't read it, skim the section on summer accessories and you'll know why I have issues... Anyway, I finally found a hemp ombré obi that I like. Too many of them have multiple colors, which is fine except that it makes it much harder to coordinate, and they're often quite costly. On top of that, I really wanted a one in green as my other is kind of a pain in the butt... 

I am honestly quite happy that there's a yellow tone to this obi because it contrasts with the colors of my summer kimono and yukata better than blue tones. 

I also had a lucky find! Kururi had a new woven bag up this year that I completely adore but it was a little pricey for me at almost 20,000 yen. At the same shop where I found the ombré obi, I saw this bag and didn't hesitate to purchase it! 

It's almost exactly the same as the Kururi one, and it was only one-fourth of the cost! It was the last they had in this style, so I'm assuming the price was dropped for that reason since no damage was noted (they had an original list price closer to the Kururi bag). 

Several weeks ago, I also purchased a new ro juban. This one is semi-custom sized, so I will finally have a summer juban that isn't too small. I hope it will arrive in time for my first summer kitsuke opportunity!

Hitoe Season Comes Early in Memphis

As often is the case in the Southern USA, warm temperatures come quite early here in Memphis. This weekend, it was over 80 degrees F, and wearing awase in that kind of heat (and with rampant humidity!) can be torture. Outside of Japan, it's a little easier to not follow the traditional rules of awase, hitoe, and usamono. By Japanese standards, I shouldn't switch until mid-May to hitoe. But with it being as hot as it was, I went ahead and wore hitoe this past Saturday.

This hitoe komon has a geometric design, and I paired it with a simple green and cream hakata nagoya obi. The accessories are a purple and orange obiage with wisteria embroidery and a lighter purple obijime.

Thanks for looking!

MTAC 2015 - Photoshoot Preview

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with the amazing Madster Cosplay and Photography this past weekend at the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention (MTAC). We did two photoshoots - one on Friday in geisha henshin and the other on Saturday in my fem Aarune cosplay (Pokémon ORAS). Here are the preview photos!

Geisha Henshin

Fem Aarune

Such amazing shots; you can't even tell that we were in a hotel surrounded by a business district with a busy road and full parking lots! I sincerely hope I get to work with this photographer again!

2015 Hanami Coordination

Yesterday was the annual hanami at our local botanic garden. I performed tea ceremony in one of the outdoor pavilions, so sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the lovely cherry trees! My husband did snap a couple photos of my outfit before we left the house. This coordination consists of a striped tsumugi, cream geometric nagoya obi, pale blue lace haneri, raspberry obiage, pink sanbuhimo, rose obidome, and rhinestone flower kanzashi used as an obi kazari.

I was afraid that this kimono could very easily end up making me look like an old lady, so I tried to make the outfit more youthful by adding the girly details and a few brighter pops of color.

Blue and blue!

We had a casual tea ceremony practice last weekend, so I opted for a fairly casual ensemble. I usually am not a big fan of monochromatic ensembles, but I liked this combination of the light blue striped edo komon with the darker blue nagoya obi with karabana motif. It's not totally monochromatic due to the pale pink obijime, white chirimen obiage, and zori with brown hanao, but you get the idea. 

My husband is getting better and better at doing these photos, and he decided that I should do a dance pose for one of them, so here's a "bonus":

It's from a dance I've been learning called "Nozaki Kouta". I'm still very much a beginner, so my apologies if my pose is not great! 

Lastly, I've got several conventions coming up, so please be looking for some more kimono and geisha henshin photos soon!

Ichigo Kyoyaki Chawan

As many of you know, I have been practicing chado (tea ceremony) for several years now. Like my kimono collection, my collection of chadogu (tea implements) is ever-growing. I tend to favor more earthy designs for my chawan and rarely delve into the realm of Kyoyaki, since I feel many of the designs are outlandish and gaudy. That being said, I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with this ichigo design chawan:

It's such a unique motif! And of course, very modern. It was made by potter Tozan of Kyoto.

Being a modern motif, I'm not 100% sure when it would be best to use it. My thinking is that because strawberries are one of the first fruits to ripen in late spring and early summer, it would probably be best to use it slightly before that time.