Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Rakuten Update

Hey everyone,

After years of recommending the Japanese online shopping mall Rakuten to others for free, because I've had a lot of great experiences shopping there and, for my readers, they ship internationally and in English, I will start getting a fixed $1 commission today if someone buys something there through one of my links.

This won't change my policy or honesty in things I find on Rakuten, but I want to be completely transparent. Thanks for reading and your support!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Kickstarter Kimono Fashion Show Goodies!


These are my goodies I got for donating to a Kickstarter-funded kimono fashion show that will happen during New York Fashion Week 2016. The pieces of fabric are kimono textile fabric, and the postcards were made for backers by a paper-cutting artist. I especially love the little sparrows sitting in the bamboo!
Led by Hiromi Asai, a Japanese kimono stylist that lives and works in New York, the show will “bring real kimono to New York Fashion Week next February”.
From the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimononyfw
“Though Kimono is a popular word in the world, most people don’t know what really kimono is and how beautiful kimono is.The first aim of our project is to demonstrate authentic kimono beauty and elegance at one of the biggest world fashion venues. We will acquire much more kimono lovers who put kimono in their wardrobes and wear kimono on various occasions. We believe that people may rediscover and wonder that “old-fashioned” kimono is really a “modern” dress with huge capacity of variation.”
“The second aim of our project is to encourage kimono artisans though our world-wide show, and make the kimono industry re-flourish through making bigger market of kimono in the world. We believe that kimono artisans watch the show using their created fabrics and be more proud of their art of kimono creation. We also want to evolve the art of kimono creation to real fashion. Thus, this project is not for our promotion. We believe this project is for the future of kimono and kimono fashion.”
Good luck to everyone involved!