Japanese Kimono and Obi Sewing Details: Part 2

Here is Part 2, the last part, of my video on kimono and obi sewing details, meant to give a quick close up look at general Japanese kimono pieces that most sewers don’t have a chance to look at in real life.

In Part 2 I show authentic examples of men’s and women’s obi, accessories, tabi (socks) and even footwear just to round it all out. Part 1 was men and women’s kimono, looking at sleeves, collars, and seams.

(Apologies for the noise of the AC, but it was too hot out to try to film with it off!)

Video - Kimono and Obi Sewing Details: Part 1

This week's video is up, a popular reader/home sewer/costumer request for a closer look at the details of a kimono and related accessories. Part 1 covers kimono, and Part 2 next week will be obi and accessories. Please pardon our cats playing in the background!

Part 2 of my video for costumers and cosplayers is up! I include sewing advice and general tips for wearing your costume well. Have a great weekend and thanks for all your support on the newly revamped channel!

How To Sew Kimono: Construction Details for Sleeves and Body

This is an old tutorial I made a long time ago, but I don't think I ever added it here. Feel free to download it and use it as a reference sheet, and good luck with your sewing!

Important note: When I say the exact middle of the blue seam, I mean that in a horizontal sense: if you drew a line down your shoulder into your arm, the midpoint of that blue seam will be on that invisible line (as seen in the reference photo). Not that the seam itself should sit on top of your shoulder.

Also, the top inside corners of panels 5 and 6, the front overlap pieces, will get folded in and eaten up by the collar.

How to Put on Hakama for Men and Women

Here are two helpful videos for complete kimono and hakama (pants) outfits. Even if you don't speak Japanese, this rental company visually walks you through the entire process step by step.

Costumers, cosplayers, history buffs, and artists might find these videos useful. There's nothing like seeing a garment in three dimensions to help you understand how it's made. :)

Women's graduation outfit: This outfit is worn by girls graduating high school or college. The mid-length-sleeve furisode (young women's kimono) in this demonstration has a much shorter hem than a normal kimono of this type because it is only meant to be worn under hakama. It would never be worn alone like a regular kimono.

Regular women don't wear hakama in the modern day outside of graduation and certain traditional sports.





Men's formal outfit: The most formal outfit for men includes hakama, along with a jacket called a haori (haori can be worn by men or women in general, as a note) and a distinctive puffball tie that closes the jacket. One note is that if you want to do a men's kimono outfit without hakama (which is ok, of course), you wouldn't tie this particular bow tie knot in the middle of the back but rather one of several different types of knots off-center on the back. This specific one in the video is meant to help support the back of the hakama.

How to Put On a Furisode Kimono

Long time, no post!

I ran across this video today, and while I might make my own English-language one in the future, thought those looking for instructions for how to wear a furisode would find this helpful visually.

Auto-translate isn't working at all, but it's no loss anyway as Mom and daughter are just chatting about random stuff and not explaining anything about what Mom is doing as she dresses her.

If you have questions, please direct them to me on Facebook or Tumblr, as I don't check in here that often anymore. Thank you!

Maiko, Oiran, Geisha: What is the Difference?

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I've made a video version of one of the most popular posts on this blog, the basic visual differences between a geisha, maiko, and oiran. Hope y'all enjoy!

My First Video! How to Tie a Tateya Knot for Furisode

I've been toying with doing educational videos for some time, and when I volunteered to do this particular one for a friend to show her this knot, I figured it would be a good starting point for doing them for my blog, too. :)

 
The "tateya musubi", or standing-arrow knot, is a popular one used with young women's long-sleeved (furisode) kimono, and resembles a large, tilted bow.

Let me know if you have any questions or requests for future videos! Technically the obi I'm using in this video isn't formal enough, but it was the only "fukuro style" (open the entire length) obi I had around the house.

Kimono Sleeve Construction Tips

I am hoping to have some truly exciting news to share with y'all late May, but for now here's a quick and dirty rundown of sleeve construction in women's kimono, as per a request by a reader. :) (For men's kimono, you would sew shut the "body vent" and back of the sleeve.)

Obi-dome Tutorial: Kimono Jewelry

Traditionally, kimono are worn with no jewelry whatsoever: no earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc., though it is worth nothing that in modern times those rules are loosening up, especially in casual situations.

One of the only ornaments seen with kimono is the "obi-dome" 帯留め／帯留(oh-bee doh-meh), a sort of brooch or bead threaded through the obi-jime cord worn over the obi.

Obi-dome are a kind of novelty item and are usually worn with casual kimono up through mid-formal ones, depending on the flashiness or use of jewels. Two of the most notable exceptions to this rule are large, playful ones sometimes seen with young women's furisode and huge, high-end ones worn by maiko (apprentice geisha).

Bottom photo: Maiko Humihana 富美英、Fumisono 富美苑、 Fumitama 富美珠
photo credit Onihide

Here are some examples from the Rakuten seller "Sou-bien", ranging from cute to chic.

Obi-dome are a bit whimsical by nature, as you can tell by the photos above, so pretty much anything goes. :) If you'd like to make your own, here's a quick tutorial I put together.

Click to see full-size.

Spotting Fakes With Halloween Costumes

One of the requests I get most often, and can't grant, is photos of fakes, mostly due to permission issues and me not wanting to embarrass individuals.

The good news is that Halloween is a perfect time of year to test your kimono knowledge as the costume market gets flooded with knock-offs of varying quality and you can see them in-person in stores (or online if you're overseas). In all my years in America, I have yet to see a mass-produced costume that is even close to a real kimono, but it's interesting to see what gets "lost in translation" and what the designers keep.

Yesterday, I took this snapshot at a certain popular retailer. Test your knowledge: How much is wrong with this outfit? You can check your answers below.

The sleeves are wrong. There should be no contrasting hems, collars or trim. It appears to be a solid skirt on the bottom instead of one side folded over the other. The material is cheap, thin satin. The obi is also cheap satin and bunched up. They did actually get the total length and left-over-right part correct on the collar, however!

(As a note, I have nothing against people wearing these sorts of costumes for Halloween or any other costume event. :) The issue is when people assume real kimono look like the cheap costumes they've seen and get taken advantage of by unscrupulous sellers.)

Great Otaiko Knot How-To Video and Costume Tips

This weekend I had the chance to go to a fantastic Japanese-music concert, more of which I'll post about later.

I wore kimono to the event, and for the first time ever (remember, I've been a kimono collector a lot longer than a wearer!), I was very confident of the crisp and pretty "otaiko" obi knot I tied, and it's all thanks to this awesome instructional video showing two camera angles at the same time. :)



Even if you don't speak Japanese, it's an extremely clear visual step-by-step demo of how to tie the famous and common otaiko knot, the boxy loop knot worn by adult women with just about every type of kimono, and is great for costumers, cosplayers or women like me who wear kimono on occasion.

Make Your Own!

For anyone making a costume that uses a simple otaiko-tied obi (we'll assume the Nagoya type rather than the more formal fukuro type), you don't need all the actual doo-dads in the video to get a decent look. Here's a quick list of cheater materials for everything (I'll toss the obi in just to make it complete):

Nagoya obi (measuring one of my own for this, but there is some variation out there): a heavyweight fabric 130" long by 12" wide, with around 2/3rds of it folded and sewn to be half-width. Nagoya are either patterned all over (more formal), with a pattern on the drum part and/or front panel (less formal) or a solid color (most casual, I believe). Some are hand-painted, so paint away if you want designs!

Koshihimo: In this case, these pink, flat strips of fabric are just used, as you can see, to hold parts of the obi up until everything is in place and are taken away in the end. Any rough fabric will work, or even just a shoelace if nothing else is around.

Obi-ita: This is a flexible cloth-covered plastic board and is the first thing she puts on. It helps keep the front of the obi smooth. A cheap solution is to cut and glue a two-layer thick piece of posterboard in the same shape and long enough to cover your front, and tuck them in between the layers of your obi as you wind it around yourself.

Kimono clips: Binder clips, clothespins, anything that can stand up to that much heavy fabric can do the trick! If you have a real obi with embroidery on it, just be careful not to snag anything.

Obi-makura: It's a little tough to see in the video, but the obi-makura (pillow) is a firm, padded pillow shaped like a giant kidney bean with a string coming off each side that you tie around yourself in the front. It helps keep the otaiko poofed up and is not optional if you're tying that type of knot. You can fake an obi-makura by cutting off a leg of panty hose from a pair, tying a knot slightly off-center, stuffing a ton of newspaper up against the knot, and tying the other end to create your pillow.

Obi-age: The pretty silk scarf used to cover the obi-makura, (mine is around 65" long and 9" wide). In the video hers is white with red flowers. It's a simple rectangle of light silk, but any opaque light fabric can do in a pinch for a costume.

Obi-jime: The cord that ultimately holds up the tail of the otaiko (mine are around 65" long and 1/3-1/2" wide). In the video, hers is yellow. There are different types, but any basic round curtain cord or flat-weave cord can stand in.

Cosplay and Halloween Ideas with Yamatoku's Kimono Sale

Kimono dealer Yamatoku is having a huge sale on wedding kimono (uchikake) and wedding reception kimono (kakeshita/hikifurisode) right now, with some as little as $20 before shipping. A few kofurisode (short-sleeved furisode not often worn) are also available, some sold with hakama as a set.

Because of their narrow range of high formality, none of the items on sale are really useful for those who like to wear kimono on a daily basis, but any of them could be the base of some really amazing cosplay or Halloween costumes! And unlike most other costumes, these kimono are pretty enough you could use as a decor piece when you're done with them.

Some costume and cosplay ideas:

- White wedding uchikake (shiromuku): Japanese bride or ghost, O-ren Iishi from her pivotal fight scene in Kill Bill. Or paint your own designs to custom-fit any particular anime, manga, or movie character (Yuuko from xxxHolic and Hana from Gate 7 come to mind).

- Any of the hikifurisode (the non-metallic bright ones): Maiko (apprentice geisha). Above is Maiko Makino, photo courtesy of Onihide.

- Color wedding uchikake: oiran (above shot is from the oiran movie "Sakuran"), ancient Japanese princess or noblewoman, Japanese bride

Kimono, Haori, Obi, Nagajuban Seasonality Chart

Traditionally, kimono and other items are worn according to certain seasonal guidelines. Just like you wouldn't wear a wool coat in August in Texas, you wouldn't wear a lined kimono in July in Japan.

Like the Western "no white after Labor Day" rule, in recent years the strict edges of the seasons have blurred a bit as Japan's weather has grown warmer earlier in the year, but for the most part the guidelines are still followed. Here's my translation of a general chart explaining when to wear what:

The sheer fabrics are worn with a solid, opaque kimono underneath, just to be clear. ;)

If you're a kimono newbie, haori are the shorter jackets worn over kimono, and nagajuban are the underwear kimono put on first under the kimono.

Visual Guides: Top 10 Signs a Kimono is Fake, Top 10 Mistakes Artists/Cosplayers Make When Drawing/Making Kimono

If you're familiar with the art community DeviantArt, I've come and gone there over the years because I find some of the art really inspiring. :)

I've also seen a lot of mistakes made by well-meaning people who spent a ton of time on beautiful art or costumes using kimono, but didn't know much about them.

So I sat down and came up with two tutorials: quick, brief overviews of the kimono biggies to keep in mind. (Click on the image twice to see it full-size.)


Tutorial: Draw Better Kimono by *iheartsendai on deviantART


Tutorial: Real or Fake Kimono? by *iheartsendai on deviantART

If you're not sure about something you see or a picture or costume you're working on, feel free to email me and ask and I'll help out if I can. :)

Tips for Artists: Drawing Women in Kimono

If you're reading this, you're probably either one of my regular readers (hi and thank you! :D ) or an artist who entered "how to draw kimono" into a search engine.

For the artists who typed that, you've won half the battle of drawing Japanese kimono accurately because you've taken the time to do research. Today's post is all about helping you render Japanese kimono accurately in your art without making the common mistakes I see all over the place. Here are the biggies:

- No contrasting. Outside of underwear, called juban, your average kimono does not have contrasting collars or sleeves. A kimono is made entirely from the same bolt of fabric, collar and sleeves included. If you think you're seeing contrasting collars, it's probably either the underkimono peeking out (as it should) or a fake "dickey" length of fabric worn under the collar to suggest a second layer of kimono that isn't really there.

- Left over right on the collars on both genders. Right over left is only for corpses (though even some young Japanese don't realize this, not having grown up with kimono as their grandparents did). A properly folded kimono looks like the letter "y", with the wearer's left panel on top of the right panel.

 

A bride and groom in full formal wear.

- No whiteface. While being pale is still considered beautiful in Japan (I loved finding foundation pale enough for me in several shades when I lived over there) the only people who wear whiteface on a regular basis are geisha and classical theater actors. Period.

- Smexy women's "kimono" nakedness (tiny bathrobe "kimono" hanging dangerously low/loose/"I can see all the way south to Florida"* on women). I realize not all artists are going for historical realism, but putting a girl in a skimpy short bathrobe and calling it a kimono (or worse, her a "geisha") shows more of your own fantasies than anything else.

(*We love you, Carrie Fisher!)

 

A woman performing traditional Japanese dance.

- Square sleeves. Kimono are not bell-sleeved. A kimono is a T-shape when hung on a line, the sleeves plain rectangles sewn to the rectangle body at the top of the shoulder seam. This makes it an approximate pain in the ass to draw, but a little practice and looking at photos can help.

- No cleavage. See "South to Florida" above. ;) Women's kimono are worn folded high at the neck.

- Formality. Whole books have been written on this topic, but here's a quick and dirty cheat sheet to get you started:

Young women in yukata.

Young or adult woman: summer festival? Cotton yukata-type kimono, short sleeves, simple narrow obi usually tied in a pseudo bow in the back. Geta wooden sandals, no split-toed tabi socks. No obiage scarf or obijime cord.

Young or adult woman: every other occasion?

This is a formal furisode for special occasions.

Young woman: long-sleeve kimono, wider obi folded in half to look narrow in front but at full width in back, with giant offset bow or elaborate knot in back, obi-age scarf tucked into top of obi, wide obi-jime cord around high-middle of obi, zori sandals, white tabi.

This adult woman is performing tea ceremony in a "komon" type of kimono.

Adult woman: short-sleeve kimono, wider obi folded in half to look narrow in front but at full width in back usually done in a short and boxy-looking taiko knot, obi-age scarf tucked more into top of obi, obi-jime cord around middle/low part of obi, zori sandals, white tabi.

For more specific looks, try searching for the terms komon, tsukesage, houmongi, furisode, irotomesode, kurotomesode, kakeshita, and uchikake to see how kimono types look different as they become more formal. Obi types begin at hanhaba and go up to Nagoya, fukuro, and maru.

So, fellow artists, if you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a note and I'll help if I can. :) I know firsthand it can be intimidating drawing a certain type of clothing if you don't know much about it (one reason I have yet to draw anyone in traditional Chinese outfits).

All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Kimono Costumes: Geisha and "Samurai Darth Maul"

I'm sometimes asked what I do with the kimono I collect. The answer is usually "wear them when I have the opportunity" or "show them at educational panels," but as a costuming geek I also have fun working them into costumes when I can.

So a couple of weeks ago at Houston's Comicpalooza convention (awesome, can't wait for next year!) I wore these two:

Geisha "Ayame"

This costume has been a long labor of love as I kept an eye out for pieces in my price range, but I finally pieced together a decent "starter" geisha look! It involves a hikizuri (trailing kimono often worn during dance performances) in my favorite color, a hakata obi (traditional geometric weave pattern classically seen on geisha) worn in a style particular to geisha, two-color dance fans, and a human-hair katsura (wig) in a styling very similar to a geisha's.





"Ayame" 菖蒲 means "iris" and is a flower that fits me for a couple of reasons: it blooms in my birth month (May) and is often seen in my favorite color, purple. :)

My kitsuke (kimono-wearing) skills need a lot of practice, but I loved this costume and will definitely wear it again.

"Samurai" Darth Maul

This next costume comes from the fact I'm aiming for an eventual full Darth Maul (Star Wars) costume, because I love challenges in costuming, but due to funding and time only had half of it done by the convention. My choices if I wanted to do it anyway were a white T-shirt with "rest of costume goes here" worn over my linen black pants and Frank Thomas black boots, or my idea to do a nod to the awesome Star Wars "ukiyo-e" paintings I saw on the Immortal Geisha forums a long while back, which featured the characters as classical Japanese nobles, samurai, demons, etc.

So I bring you a loosely-inspired "Samurai Darth Maul" in punk black hakama by indies brand Qutie Frash, a formal men's kimono and haori, boken practice sword, men's geta, and a whole lot of paint!









It was well-received at the con (Darth Maul barely talks, so with binding and a silent swagger the costume seemed to work, as I was taken for a guy all day) and an artist actually came running up to me excited because he did a series of paintings, apparently, featuring Star Wars characters in "real life" and one was a Maul samurai. It was a lot of fun all around, though I will say to any guys reading that it was tough figuring out how to walk like a guy. ;)

I will also say that after all the prep time and work that goes into Maul (bald cap, handmade horns, full head of paint) the geisha makeup seems like a breeze in comparison.

So there are two of my own kimono-based costumes! If you've done any you'd like to share, any costume that involves a kimono, please send me a link or picture! I'd love to see them. :)

Geisha or Maiko Costumes - Odori Furisode on Ebay

Odori means "dance", which some geisha (and their maiko apprentices) specialize in as one of their arts.

An Ebay seller has just listed several odori furisode at reasonable Buy It Now prices (or if you're feeling brave you could try an even lower Best Offer, which is offered on all four).

The special feature of these kimono is how long they are, as these kimono are meant to trail across a stage during a dance performance. There's no guarantee these are actual maiko kimono (in the case of the long-sleeved ones) or geisha kimono (in the one case with the shorter-sleeved black one) because any professional dancer, from my understanding, could wear this, but they fit the same dimensions and could easily be used in maiko or geisha costumes.

Sort of like ladybugs are red, but not everything red is a ladybug. These kimono could be worn by geisha, but they're not the only ones who could wear them. If that makes sense?

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Go look at the pretty kimono. ;)

Kimono Photography Tips

If you want to take a photo of yourself in your favorite kimono coordinate, how can you make your pictures look better? Here are a few general and kimono-specific photography tips for your next time in front of a camera. :)

1. Lighting - Good lighting can really increase the quality of a photo, and bad lighting can destroy it. Even if you have a point-and-click camera, you can still take advantage of good lighting situations by shooting either in the early morning or late afternoon (when the sun is not directly overhead and making harsh shadows), on overcast days (when light is soft and diffused), or near windows and natural light if you're inside.

2. Composition - There are whole books written on this, but a couple of basic tips are try not to cut any limbs off at the joints, and leave enough "breathing" room around yourself or the subject so the focal point/person doesn't seem crammed into the photo.

3. Hips In! - This sounds like some kind of fight move... Anyway, while this is a personal opinion, I say in general don't stand with your hip stuck out, as people often like to pose in Western clothing, unless you're going for something over-the-top and funky. The effect is usually that you put your kimono on crooked because it's trying to follow the line of your hips and ends up looking uneven across the bottom. Stand straight up for a cleaner line.

4. Straightforward? - Standing straight on into the camera, especially in all the layers kimono adds, can make you seem much bigger than you actually are. Turn slightly to one side or the other for a more natural silhouette.

5. Garage Door of Doom - I coined this phrase when talking about Goth outfit shots back in the day. (A super-cool, super-Goth outfit worn by some hot super-Goth posing super-Gothically loses just a bit of its visual punch when the photo was taken in front of a beige garage door.) Basically it means take the time to find a background that will add positively to the theme of the image, or at least be neutral.

Like bad lighting, distracting or ill-fitting backgrounds can detract from the overall photo. You don't need a koi pond and bonsai garden behind you, but at least go for a plain wall or set of trees.

Real or Fake? Soft Obi

Most obi (the sashes worn with kimono) are firm enough to hold their shape and tie and form into various stiff knots. Occasionally, you'll see things advertised as obi that are soft and more like thin cloth than brocade, floppy, or textured. Are they real?

They can be: I'd say the biggest clue is material. If it's satin or shiny silk or is made of the same material as a kimono sold with it, those are fakes.

Real soft obi come in a few different categories, two of the most common being "heko" obi and "shigoki" obi. Heko obi come in men's, women's and children's varieties and are tied in a simple dangling bow or knot, and shigoki obi are making a small comeback as an accent obi worn with another obi for women's kimono, also tied simply.