Sunday, March 21, 2010

Kamikaze Con Kimono Panel: Thank You!

Today, I and one of my best friends did an introductory kimono panel at Kamikaze Con, which covered the history of kimono, the different types with real-life examples of many, and a start-to-finish dressing of a volunteer in a summer yukata and hanhaba obi (thank you again! :) ). I did one similar at last October's Oni-Con, but I try to change them up a bit each time so people can see something new.

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who came! It was a lot of fun to do, and y'all were a wonderful group. If you attended and have any comments or questions (or got any photos as I blanked out on getting some of the actual panel), feel free to drop me a note at info atttt thekimonolady.com, and thank you! UPDATE (4/20): You can now check out a couple of photos here. :)

Here's the one photo I remembered to get after the panel, of me and Giant Suitcase o' Kimono in tow:

Today I decided to take the plunge and wear a non-yukata outfit (yukata are the simplest to wear and, having worn them enough, I'm very comfortable in them). So I went with a purple and abstract (possibly) spider-web pattern komon (fine pattern kimono), a Nagoya obi with tiny gold, red and white flowers, and green obi-age scarf and obi-jime. My kitsuke (kimono wearing) needs a huge amount of work as I've only recently moved from collecting to wearing, but it was exciting to actually go out of the house in something dressier than a yukata!

It'll be a long time before I can do a whole panel on kitsuke, but with a lot of practice between now and then I hope to confidently include how to tie a basic taiko knot and men's formal kimono and hakama in my panel on April 2 at Houston's Anime Matsuri.

This is one fun part about this blog and doing panels: I'm always learning something new!

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