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!

Kyoto Geisha Dance Performance - The Miyako Odori

The Kyoto Miyako Odori is the biggest and most famous geisha dance in Japan, and this year I finally had the chance to go! I made a mini-review featuring a bit of the optional Japanese tea ceremony with a real geisha and maiko beforehand, souvenirs I got, and a couple of tips for tourists who will be in Kyoto in April.

I really enjoyed this: the geisha and maiko were beautiful and elegant, the sets were amazing, and it's easy to see why this is so famous. I feel it would be a true highlight of any April Kyoto trip, not only for kimono or geisha fans but anyone who wants to see traditional Japanese culture.

 

For more about geisha, check out these other articles:

What is a Geisha?

A Geisha Timeline

Geisha vs. Maiko vs. Oiran

More posts about geisha!

End-of-Class Party!

So today I went to the end-of-semester/class party for the free kimono dressing lessons I've been taking. :) It was a lot of fun and I look forward to taking more classes starting next month!

Wasou Kimono Class Update!

My casual matroshka-doll pattern zori.

All this fall and winter, one morning a week, I load up my little carry-on suitcase with kimono goodies and trundle off to my kimono-wearing (kitsuke) class. It’s something I look forward to all week. :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post. I’m studying with the Wasou school, and I’m happy to report I’ve had an excellent experience with them so far. It turns out I and the other student in the early class are more advanced than most beginners, in the words of our teacher, so we’ve been able to move quickly through the basics and focus more on getting little details right.

Our teacher is a kind and enthusiastic woman, who is unfazed by my foreignness and very pleased that I’m interested in kimono. She’s quite surprised at how much I know already and she and my fellow student were happy to hear that I am doing my best to help educate English-speakers about kimono.

The first few classes have focused on basic casual dressing and otaiko knots. We bring our own kimono and accessories, and she walks us through the steps, giving us tips and advice. A couple of tips I’ve picked up so far:

- When wrapping the kimono around your hips, the seam on the right front panel should vertically line up with the middle of the split in your tabi.

- Korin belts: for convenience’s sake, clip them to the back of the kimono’s sleeves before you put the kimono on. That way it’s already in reach when you need to clip them to the collars later during the dressing process.

- When you go to sit seiza (on your knees) in a kimono, keep your knees a little wider than usual as you kneel and when you sit the kimono won’t be too tight across your thighs and legs.

And for the vintage collectors and wearers out there, a reassuring note about seasonal motifs. I asked about them, and my teacher said that while seasonality is important in things like tea ceremony, not many people will be upset if you wear a particular pattern out of season in a casual situation.

Why? In modern times, most women have so few kimono asking for a head-to-toe casual seasonal outfit is just not possible for most. I was happy to hear that the kimono world is becoming more flexible and open-minded in this regard, and hope it’s a sign of the kimono’s continuing rebirth with younger women in Japan.

Tokyo Kimono Week

Here's a lovely video from this past week, October 26th, at "Tokyo Kimono Week", featuring a variety of traditional kimono looks. :)



Notice how the models' silhouettes are a cylinder around the body area: in the modern "proper" approach to kimono, the ideal shape is one without curves, so wearers are usually padded with handtowels around places like the small of the back, the waist, and even above the bust at times.

Houston's Grand Taiko Concert

Last weekend my best friend and I went to Kaminari Taiko's Grand Taiko Concert here in Houston, the last year for an annual free event that two years ago set the world record for largest taiko performance in the world with 18,000 attendees!

The audience was treated to a full concert of primarily taiko music by Houston's own Kaminari Taiko, San Francisco Taiko Dojo, and Osuwa Daiko, along with a Nihon Buyo (Japanese dance) performance by dance master Takahamaryu Mitsujuroku.

It was a lot of fun, and a perfect chance to wear kimono. Last week I went back and forth on what I was going to wear due to the recent heat wave, but fortunately the weather cooled down enough I was able to wear what I really wanted to: a pink komon with maple-leaf Nagoya obi tied in the usual taiko knot. The multicolored maple leaves on the obi make it a good seasonal fit for late summer, early autumn, and the abstract-pattern komon is OK to wear any time of year.

I believe this particular obi is technically a little dressy for the komon as it has a pattern all over it a la a more formal fukuro obi, but I think it squeaks by because, even though it was held outdoors, a concert is technically a semi-formal event. My kitsuke needs a lot of work, but I enjoyed finally getting this ensemble together.

After the show, the leaders of each taiko group received flowers and threw them into the audience. I caught the ones from the head of the San Francisco group, Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka! (Let it never be said you can't move and jump in kimono when you want to. ;) )

The MC invited the audience to come meet the drummers and performers after the show as they came outside, and it was great getting to meet the leaders of each group and some of the performers.

I also ended up doing some on-the-fly translation for Makoto, head of Osuwa Daiko, and was really happy I did, because I got the chance to translate this amazing compliment for him: One man said, "Of all the free concerts they have out here (at Miller Theater) all year long, this is the only one I come to." Makoto's face lit up and he hugged the man, thanking him.

It was the perfect ending to the evening, and I'm glad I got to catch this last Miller Theater performance of these amazing groups.

Panel Madness at KamikazeCon!

This weekend, if you're in Houston and have a chance, check out local anime convention KamikazeCon.

I'll be there doing four panels, which is new and exciting for me. The most I've ever done in a weekend is two!

FRIDAY:

Kimono 101 (2:00PM - 3:00PM)
A friendly, fast-paced introduction to the world of Japanese kimono, including history, different types, how to buy, how to tell a real one from a fake, and how to wear them. Authentic examples will be on hand and a start-to-finish dressing demo will be included.


SATURDAY:

Kimono for Cosplayers (10:00AM - 11:00AM)
From Hetalia to Kenshin, kimono are a common sight in anime and manga. If you'd like to cosplay a character who wears one, come on by! You'll learn the pros and cons of making vs. buying with real-life examples, tips for budget costumes, and advice on how to wear and move in them as your character.

Geisha 101 (8:00 PM - 9:00PM)
Step into the world of the geisha, the classical entertainer and symbol of traditional Japan. This panel will give you the basics on what geisha are, what they do, and how they dress: some answers might surprise you! Tips for cosplaying geisha will also be included.


SUNDAY:

Japanese Traditions 101 (12:00PM - 1:00 PM)
Stop by for a quick introduction to some of the cultural traditions of Japan: geisha, Japanese dance, calligraphy, kimono, and the Shinto religion.

Two Panels This Weekend at Delta H Con

This weekend in Houston is Delta H Con, an intimate little anime convention on the University of Houston campus. If you're going and are interested, I'll be doing two panels this weekend! :)

Today, 7pm, Panel Room 2: Kimono 101. This is the basic introductory panel I do at conventions, which I tweak a little each time with new examples or a different "extra" topic/obi knot/etc. thrown in for those who have seen it before. Geared toward beginners, it covers history and types of kimono, how to tell a real one from a fake (important as there are so many out there for sale!), and if time allows a start-to-finish dressing demonstration for both men and women.

Saturday, 11am, Panel Room 2: Kimono for Cosplayers. From Hetalia to Kenshin, kimono are a common sight in anime and manga. This cosplay-focused panel will cover the pros and cons of buying kimono vs. making your own, tips for budget costumes, real-life examples of different types, and how to convincingly wear and move in-character in kimono.

For me, today's outfit is a purple yukata with rabbits playing in leaves, a hanhaba obi, and a big flower headband. Here's to comfy summer outfits! :D

Kimono at the Royal Ascot

Just a quick post to share a couple photos of women in formal kimono at the recent Royal Ascot, the huge horse race/social event in England.

A woman laughing in the rain. So cute!

Scroll down to see three women in gorgeous kimono, the two younger ones in furisode.

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. :)

Houston Japan Fest - Yabane and Shamisen

This past weekend was Houston's annual Japan Fest, where over 20,000 people gathered to enjoy Japanese traditional music and martial art demonstrations, crafts, children's games, shopping, and on the pop culture side, cosplay and spontaneous "battlegrounds" popping up.

I went both days, and my favorite outfit of the weekend was the one I wore Saturday, a fun and casual take on an ultra-classical yabane kofurisode (short-sleeved furisode) softened by adding pink accessories and a cherry fake collar to mimic a juban underkimono layer underneath. Technically you need a juban for any kimono over a yukata in formality, but I'm not wearing one with a lined kimono in 86 degree heat to an all-day outdoor event.

For the obi, I tied it in the popular "tateya" (standing arrow) pattern often seen with furisode.

Yabane 矢羽根 is a stylized vertical pattern of typically interlocking arrow fletchings, worn centuries ago by servants on samurai estates, if I recall correctly. Eventually fashionable townspeople began wearing the pattern and it's been a popular design ever since.

(I was also interviewed in this outfit by a local news station, so for my fellow Houstonians: if you happen to see a woman in this outfit on Channel 39 that was me. Hopefully I don't sound as dorky as I think I did. ^_^;)

At a later point I'll put up a tutorial for the mock obi-jime (pink cord) I made for this outfit. It was both simple and cheap and is something I'll definitely do again if I can't get hold of a real one in time.

Here's me in the outfit with Yutaka Oyama and Masahiro Nitta of "Oyama x Nitta Duo", an award-winning shamisen duo that performed at the festival. My kitsuke needs a lot of work, but I was happy to meet them and enjoyed their show!

If you'd like to know more Carnegie Hall put together an informative page when they played there last month, and here's one of their videos, Karma, on Youtube. Very sweet guys, and talented!

What to Wear to Meet the President

Kimono formality, while generally outlined by TPO (time, place, occasion) charts, can be as tricky as Western clothing when it comes to what to wear for what event.

If you'd asked me what would be appropriate women's kimono for meeting a U.S. president, I might have gone for a gold fukuro obi and kurotomesode, the black with hem-patterns kimono type and the highest-level formality for a married woman. However, on Obama's recent trip to Kamakura to visit the temple that houses a famous giant Buddha, the temple director Michiko Sato wore a fairly subdued fukuro obi and houmongi (visiting wear), which is two steps down from a kurotomesode (kurotomesode, then iro(color background)-tomesode, then houmongi). Takao Sato, the man with her, is the temple's chief monk and is not dressed in typical men's wear.

After following the link, you can click back and forward a few more photos to see more of their outfits and the Buddha.

Given Michiko's age (tradition requires more subtle colors for older women) and the nature of the event (walking around the temple and chatting rather than a formal dinner, etc.), her outfit makes sense to me, and it was interesting to see a real-life example of a situation not found on most TPO charts. ;)

Regarding Kamakura itself, it is a pretty day-trip out of Tokyo and worth going to, but a little touristy in spots. If I'm remembering right, you can also actually walk down into the Buddha as he's hollow.

Japan at the Ren Fest

Our local "Texas Renaissance Festival" is one of the biggest in America and is 36 years old this year. My parents first took me as a little kid, and I fell in love with it and have gone more or less ever since, barring the times when I was out of the state or country.

Over the years, the costumes seen there have shifted somewhat into a broader spectrum. Nowadays in the crowd you're as likely to see a fairy or bellydancer as you are a more traditional medieval outfit, and you're starting to see more historical fringe elements (what was the world like in other places during the same time span?) appear.

The historical fringe costumes include Japanese outfits, a handful of which I saw today and were mostly men in martial-arts hakama and tops: nice, sedate outfits that blended in well.

The fun part about going back in Japanese history is that, more or less, kimono and related items have largely looked the same since the 1600s, so fudging an outfit from "long ago" is a lot easier with authentic Japanese clothes than Western ones. It won't be 100% historically accurate, but your modern kimono will be far more on target (especially to the average American eye) than your modern Western shirt or dress would be.

I'm actually putting together what I hope will be a reasonable facsimile of a Japanese oiran (high-level prostitute) costume myself, and will wear it and post some photos in November when it's cool enough to go back wearing several layers of kimono, whiteface, and a proper wig without melting into a puddle.

Why not go as a geisha? They actually didn't exist "yet", coming into being in the 1700s. Oiran and their predecessors are on the edge of the technical time period (1600s) to begin with, but for me geisha are too far out on the timeline to take to the Ren Fest.

London "Kimono de Jack" Event Oct. 23rd!

People in Japan don't wear kimono on a daily basis anymore, but the increasingly popular "Kimono de Jack" events have been bringing them back into the everyday world.

A typical Kimono de Jack meet will ask folks to wear kimono and get together at a specific time and place to hang out and have fun. Until now these events have only been in Japan, but thanks to fellow kimono blogger Lyuba-chan there will be a Kimono de Jack meet in London, October 23rd!

So, if you're in London or near it and like kimono, go show support for her and your favorite addictive garment. ;) Wearing kimono isn't required, as long as you're interested in them!

You can find out more here, or follow Kimono de Jack UK on Twitter here.

"Kimono de Jack" Events

If you're a kimono fan in Japan, or one who will be visiting in the future, and would like a chance to get together with others who enjoy them, check out the "Kimono de Jack" events.

Begun as a casual get-together for people wearing kimono, it's blossomed into a regular event in several cities across the country, and all wearing kimono are welcome.

Thanks! and... Any Questions?

Whew! I'm home and tired, but had a great time at the convention. Thanks to the organizers, my fellow dealers, and everyone who visited our booth!

Like I told folks who stopped by, if you have a kimono of your own you have a question about, feel free to drop me an email and I'll help if I can. My email is info attttt thekimonolady.com, and I'll get back to you in a few days. :)

Join Me at Delta H Con!

For those of you in the Houston area, I'll be teaming up with dealer Kyoto Kimono this weekend at Delta H Con, selling komon, obi, men's formal wear, and more. Stop by our booth and say hi or bring any questions you might have about items of your own. :)

Delta H Con is a game and anime convention in its third year and will be today, tomorrow and Sunday at the University Center on the University of Houston campus. The address is 4800 Calhoun, Houston TX, 77004, and the center can be reached at 713-743-2255.

Wedding Kimono Parade

The town of Minami Aizu in Fukushima has an 800-year old tradition of putting on a sort of "bride" parade, where women dressed in wedding kimono march through the summer heat to help make offerings at an important local shrine. This year's parade took place a couple of weeks ago, and you can see a photo gallery of the event here.

In a glimpse into a more traditional way of thinking, the white strips across the women's foreheads are a traditional piece of the wedding outfit, "horn hiders", meant to hide a woman's natural jealousy and show that she promises to keep a lid on it as best she can.

Kyoto Geiko: Hassaku 2010

Those in the Gion district of Kyoto on August 1st might have caught a glimpse of Hassaku 八朔, ("August 1st").

It's an event where every Gion geiko (another word for geisha from Kyoto) and maiko (apprentice geisha) dress up in their most formal ensembles to visit the head of a very famous geisha dance school and then make the rounds visiting associated teahouses. Flickr photographer Onihide brings us a few lovely photos from the event, which you can see here.

Happy 4th of July!

My dear friend Courtney did a shoot with me in a yukata, and as we used sparklers I thought it'd make a good post for today. :) Happy 4th to my fellow Americans!

For the outfit itself, I was tempted to experiment after reading Okimono Kimono, so I dressed things up with an obi-age scarf, obi-jime cord, and impromptu obi-dome (obi-jime ornament), wearing them according to some vintage kitsuke tips I recently translated (tall people are helped by a wide ohashori fold below the obi, the obi-age is tucked in more, the obi-jime is worn lower). I purposefully chose an obi-jime almost the same color as the obi to make the obi-dome stand out, but I'm not sure if I like the end result or not.

It was fun, and a big big thank you to Courtney! You can see more of her work here.

All photos copyright Courtney Brown and used with permission.