Back in March we were contacted by the AACS to see if we would host a kimono booth at their annual charity gala. We had a nice little corner set up with several kimono displayed, books and various kimono related dressing items. The lady who contacted us brought her vintage wedding kimono for us to display as well. It was a very lovely evening and it was nice getting to share out love of kimono with this organization.
The sprig festival was held almost a month early this year so we had to do a bit of scrambling to get everything ready. However we did have lots of volunteer help and the new backdrop and lighting set to play with. We also had a couple of yukata sets available for purchase as well as one set that got raffled off. Being next to the stage was loud during musical numbers but overall things went really smoothly this year and we all had a great time. It is always so great to get to be a part of the Spring Festival every year.
Me my sis and nephew. It was difficult to fit 3 people in with our narrow backdrop. I really liked that yukata obi combo I’m wearing.
Our 3 volunteers for the festival. They were sooooo much help and it’s always a good time getting to hang out with other kimono enthusiasts.
This gal is on the board for Anime Punch and was very excited about maybe getting us involved next year.
Afterwards we all went to Sushi Ting to celebrate a successful event.
Back in February we spoke with a girl scout troop who was learning about Japan. This was definitely a bit of a challenge for me but Quat came to my rescue and handled most of the talking. It definitely brought back memories of my own girl scout days though. We brought a couple different kinds of kimono for them to look at and they all asked great questions. We still had a lot of snow at that point so I wore my hemline high with some boots to keep my feet dry.
I forgot to add these little tidbits in my last post. I ended up with two new kimono over the weekend. One…oddly enough I found at my local thrift shop. It’s a nice blue wool men’s piece in pretty amazing condition. At $7 I couldn’t say no. I also picked up a very interesting piece in the dealers room on Sunday. A greyish-brown Homongi with nekoyanagi or pussy willow on it. In 8 years I’ve never seen this motif on a kimono. It’s in really god condition as well and the silk feels so lush. I paid a little more than I wanted to but in the end I’m really very happy with it. It is however, a pain in the behind to photograph.
Over the weekend we presented 3 panels for Ohayocon. The first was, ‘Kimono are made to wear’ in which we explained some kimono basics then showed the audience a version of traditional kimono dressing and a more modern version. We dressed Erika up that day as well and she joined us for a time in the panel. The only picture I got of my Saturday kimono outfit was with voice actor David Matranga, but I had my hems hiked up and was wearing boots for the ‘modern’ outfit. The two panels on Sunday consisted of, ‘Life of a Geisha’ and ‘Kimono buyers guide’ both which had excellent turn outs and some wonderful audience questions. On Friday we didn’t have a panel but Quat and I dressed up in hakama and wandered around the convention center for a bit.
I’m a little late getting this out this year. The past few months have been exceptionally busy and stressful but better late than never. Here are my 2015 kimono resolutions.
1. Modify more of my kimono to fit better. Currently I have a whole stack of kimono that either need to be let out or have other minor things done to them.
2. Buy some new zori. I really need a light colored pair of polyurethane ones. Oh, and also invest in some rain covers or actual rain/snow geta/zori.
3. Make an easy obi. I do have an old ro obi I took apart some years ago that I think I may be able to do this with.
4. As always, buy more komono items. There are several pieces of under gear that I need to replace as they are getting worn out. Also, all the obiage! It seems I will always have trouble with this.
5. Work on planing some event with Jasco. I’d really like to do something strictly kimono related with them. We’ll see what happens.
Now lets look back on 2014 and see how I did with my resolutions.
1. Set aside 1 afternoon a month to pull out my stuff and actually practice dressing. While I did get to wear kimono a lot over the past year I always ended up just throwing things on and hoping it looked ok. One of the things that I originally found fascinating about kimono was all the ‘rules’ for dressing. While I love playing around with my style I would like to get back to some of those basic kitsuke roots and see if I can really polish my outfits.
This did not happen, although I did wear kimono just about once every month last year. I’m actually finding that I’m becoming much more comfortable with my dressing skills.
2. No buying kimono this year. I know, I know…this may not actually happen but, I received several pieces this past year that I have not had the chance to wear yet so I feel like I have some good options that people haven’t seen yet. I also need to flesh out my komono a lot. I may permit myself and obi or 2 since I don’t have as many of those and I could use more variety. Mostly though I think my purchases this year will be going to all the things I really don’t like buying but need.
WEll…buying a 10lb box of kimono probably negates this resolution…I did end up with one ‘new’ obi and a very nice haori last year. Didn’t really buy any accessories….*cough* I’m so bad at this one.
3. Figure out a better storage system for my stuff!
This actually did happen! I got a new set up for my obiage and obijime and re-did the top of my closet to accommodate my kimono better. I would love to actually have a nice ‘tansu’ like storage system but I don’t see that happening until we move into a house.
4. Actually, finally, make myself an unlined kimono.
Didn’t happen but, I did help Quat finish the one that she was making and for a first attempt it turned out rather well. She even wore it for our Halloween de jack event. I’m not really so concerned about this one this coming year since I have plenty of sewing projects to work on.
That’s about it. Hahaha, I didn’t really do so well on my resolutions last year. But it’s all in good fun and I really enjoy going back every year and looking at these.
Have you made any kimono resolutions for 2015?
On the 30th of December our group had a small party at our favorite sushi place. Overall it was a nice quiet evening with friends and good food.
Erika work a plum blossom haori over her cute dress. Quat wore her new blue edo komon and I finally got to wear my spider mum houmongi. Our friend let us dress him in kimono and Hakama. He looks like a giant next to us little girls.
I’ve got a couple of new video’s up over on the you tube channel.
So September was pretty dull as far as Kimono went. We did not do an outing for De Jack but we did play around with some photo-booth outfits. I really wanted to dress in men’s kimono so the top left is that. It’s hard trying to act manly. Middle top photo was from our October De Jack event. We went downtown to a big outdoor Halloween party called Highball. It’s hard to see in the photos but both Quat and I are wearing spooky haneri, her obi had spider webs on it and I decorated mine with a scull scarf and my ‘obijime’ is a ribbon with eyeballs. The last two pictures were from an impromptu event in which we were going to go apple picking. Sadly it was not allowed that day but we did get a few things and took some pictures at the farm store. Quat wore her wool meisen and home made obi and I wore this strange wool blend piece and easy obi. The kimono is one from the Yamatoku box o’doom. It actually fits fairly well but I may widen it anyway to give the sleeves a little more length. So there are our kimono shenanigans from the past two months. I don’t believe we have anything planned for November but we always do a Christmas/New Years party. I need to get on top of things and find an obi for the kimono I want to wear for that.
So it has come to my attention recently that there has been some confusion regarding which kimono groups I am a part of. Kimono is gaining popularity on an international scale, which is fantastic! The more the merrier in my opinion! However I do understand how things have gotten a little muddled with all my picture posting and throwing around of group names and what not. Here I will try and lay things out clearly for everyone as well as post links to the various groups I am involved in.
Kimono de Jack Ohio
https://www.facebook.com/groups/277792788990173/
This is a group on Facebook that I and Quat manage. We are part of the global Kimono de Jack community and have gotten permission from the creator of Kimono de Jack to be apart of this. We schedule events for the sole purpose of wearing kimono and getting it out in the public eye. This is a hobby group and anyone who has an interest in Kimono is welcome to join.
Columbus Kimono
https://www.facebook.com/ColumbusKimono
This is Quat’s and my own personal Kimono side project page. Since the purpose of de Jack is just to enjoy wearing Kimono we thought we should start a separate group for when we do educational events, photo booth and anything else where we might potentially make money or be compensated in some way. Whenever we do an event that is not us just dressing up and hanging out in Kimono we label and promote it under the Columbus Kimono name.
Northwest Ohio Kimono Society
https://www.facebook.com/groups/204871832871359/
This is a group run by Katrina out of the Toledo area and is similar to a de Jack group but is in no way affiliated with Kimono de Jack itself. They are a hobby group who enjoy Kimono and wearing it just like we do. Kimono de Jack Ohio has met up with them several times for events.
Kimono de Jack International
https://www.facebook.com/kdj.international
This is a community page on Facebook for all different chapters of Kimono de Jack around the world to get together and share their love of Kimono.
I know that’s a lot of similar words flying around there but I will always do my best to tag things appropriately in my posts depending on which group it is related too.
On a rather different note I would also like to promote my YouTube channel a little. It is my personal channel so there are some things on there that are not Kimono related but I am trying for mostly Kimono related content in the future along with more travel videos as well.
Please check my channel out here:
Kimono Ai 