Kimono Coordination: Analogous Colors

Heading back to the color wheel and art class, today's coordination post will focus on analogous colors. "Analogous colors" is just a technical term for colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.

These colors naturally tend to work well together, and can be used to create some nice kimono looks. A common example is green, yellow-green, and green.

Remember, a bit of tension or contrast is important in kimono coordination, so while the colors may be analogous, there is still some contrast in either the shade of the color used, big and dramatic patterns vs. small ones, etc. You don't want a true green background on a kimono with a true green obi, even if you make the obi age scarf and obi-jime cord yellow. All of the elements should vary in color enough that none disappear.

A couple of examples: first a lovely fukuro obi with a furisode kimono and obiage/obijime set (colors: variants of red-orange, orange and red, respectively):

And a fukuro obi with a houmongi kimono and obiage/obijime set (variants of yellow-green, green and yellow, respectively):

Images copyright Ichiroya and used with permission.