JSO Spring Festival 2013

For the Japanese Student Organization at OSU this year we did a photo-both again.  We charged $5 per 4×6 print to see what traffic and sales would be like since we are wanting to do this as a legit business for cons and what not in the future.  Had a decent amount of people that came through but we also had quite a bit of down time here and there.  It was a fun experience and I hope that we can do a set up like this for some up and coming conventions this year.

I got bored during some of our down time so I dressed in my yukata over a tank top and jeans to take a photo with our dress dummy.  The Yamoto shipping company next to us were giving out free uchiwas so we snagged a couple.

This was our basic set up.  I’m so happy that we are finally getting to use the nice 8×8 backdrop that Quat bought.

Book Review: The New Kimono

 

The New Kimono

From Vintage Style to Everyday Chic

The Editors of nanao Magazine

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (May 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770031483
• ISBN-13: 978-4770031488

 

I feel like I’m a little late to the party in reviewing this title since it came out almost 2 years ago.  I finally got a copy though and was nicely surprised by its content.  There are select articles in this book from the magazine Nanao and the most helpful are the ones from women who wear kimono often or everyday.  The book has five chapters in total with many tips and tricks for dressing comfortably.  This book has definitely piqued my interest in wool kimono and now I feel like after reading this I can dress more comfortable and cool in the summer.  I really liked some of the ‘home made’ items they mentioned and look forward to trying those out this coming summer.  There is a small section in the back on how to wear kimono, nagoya, yukata and hanhaba obi.  These you can find in most kimono magazines or books but going through them made me realize that I need to practice more!  I’ve been skipping some steps lately that I had forgotten so I think this was a nice refresher.  Definitely a good book for anyone interested in kimono at any stage.  If I ever get to Tokyo I’ll be looking up some of their listed shops in Asakusa.  I would love to hunt for unique used/vintage kimono items in a real store and not just online.

De jack # 4

For our fourth kimono de jack meeting we decided to go to the Kodo One Earth Tour 2013: Legend performance taking place at the Palace Theater in down town Columbus, Ohio.  Photos were not allowed inside the theater but I did find some online from this specific performance.

Photo is by Takashi Okamoto and was found on a promotional website.  Here you can see the colorful outfits worn by the drummers during some of the musical pieces.

Here are the outfits we wore to the theater.  I got to wear my new obi which I had just gotten in the mail that morning!  Luckily Quat had a kimono that matched it very well so I got to borrow it.

A full shot of my ensemble.  I actually wore tabi and zori this time!  Feelin’ all fancy and properly dressed.

Overall I thought the concert was really good.  I love taiko drumming and always jump at a chance to see a performance whenever I can.  I’ve also admired the group Kodo for years and really respect their philosophy and the life style commitments they make to practice their art.  If you’ve never seen anything on them there are several good documentaries floating around.  If you like traditional Japanese music then I’d highly recommend them.  Something I found out right before the performance that made me super happy was that last year famous Onnagata, Tamasaburo Bando had taken over artistic direction of the group.  I was practically flailing around in my seat with excitement.  You could definitely see the Kabuki influence in this particular performance and I enjoyed the extra little theatrics.  They also included some traditional Japanese flutes and folk singing through out giving the whole performance I nice ‘festival’ type  feeling.  My only gripe was that there were quite a few noisy kids in the audience and during some of the more quiet parts it was a bit distracting.  However, I have now seen Kodo perform live!  I can now check this off my bucket list!

My collection keeps growing!

At the end of last month I ordered things from two separate shops and was just waiting for them all to get here so I could make one large post about them! Finally, everything is in my hands! BWHAHAHAHA…ehem…sorry I get a little excited sometimes.

 

 

 

First up I found these zori from a shop on Rakuten.  They are modern and vinyl so I don’t have to worry about them getting wet if it is damp out.  Plus they are a little wider so they fit my feet!  I wore them last night for the first time and they were sooooo comfy compared to my vintage pair.  I will never buy vintage zori again!  I’m hoping that when I get paid next I can snag another pair as they were on sale and had some nice color options.

 

Next, another vintage Taisho michiyuki.  Apparently I have a weakness for these.  This beauty is burgundy velvet with peacock feathers!  The whole thing is lined with a butter soft pink satin.  I think this piece is going to the dry cleaners soon.  A few of the inside lining stitches were loose but she was just too beautiful to pass up.  It’s a little tight around the hips when I wear it over a full kimono ensemble…but…guh…I had to have her!

And lastly I got this pretty spring bamboo obi.  I believe the bamboo is airbrushed and then there are some silver accents painted on.  It also has this really cool texture but it doesn’t show up in photos.  I have to be gentle with it as there are already some small cracks in the paint but again way too pretty to pass up.

 

Oh…my poor bank account!

Kimono Challenge # 12

1. How did you discover and get into kimono?

2. Your dearest kimono item(s).

3. Your most used kimono item(s), not including dressing items or undergarments.

4. Your least used kimono item(s).

5. Your favorite coordination?

6. What you like and don’t like about kimono.

7. Kimono confessions…Did you know that…

8. Your dream kitsuke items.

9. Your biggest kimono fears.

10. Your biggest kimono inspiration?

11. Your kimono collection.

12. The evolution of your kitsuke.

13. Your special kimono memory.

 

I’ve been putting off doing this entry for a while now since I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go about things.  I’ve been interested in kimono specifically for around 6-7 years and a lot has changed since the beginning.    I suppose I could say that my kimono evolution went from costume to very traditional to having a more modern flare.  I really do love wearing western shoes with kimono now and find it perfectly acceptable in the right situation.  I’ve also been thinking a lot about ways to incorporate different pieces with more modern clothing items to create a sort of hybrid/ meiji style.  I’m really liking the idea of a ruffley blouse under a kimono at the moment.

Here are three pictures to describe my kitsuke evolution:

 

Costume kimono I made back in the day.  At least I had the right idea by making a juban to go under it and I knew I needed to cross my collars left over right.

Sorry for the poor quality but this is the only full picture of this outfit I have.  This was something I put together very early on and the kimono was the first one I bought.  I borrowed a pair of zori to teach this panel so I would have some appropriate foot wear.

Not a super recent photo but I think it conveys more of my personal style right now.  Higher hem line and western footwear plus not a floral motif to be seen!  I’m leaning heavily towards more strips and geometric patterns now although I still don’t have many in my own collection.

I hope this gave an accurate description of my evolution in kitsuke over the past few years.

De Jack # 3

We had our third De jack meet over the weekend and decided to have it at the conservatory.  The weather was being iffy so this seemed like a good indoor place.  Two people had to cancel on us but a lovely gentleman with his two nieces did show up.  He did not have his own kimono outfit to wear but was very interested in what we were doing and had lots of good questions.  Perhaps we have stoked a fire of kimono passion for him?  Here are a few pictures of what we wore.

Ohayo-con 2013 review

Weekend before last was Columbus, Ohio’s annual Ohayo-con and as usual our little group went and did several panels for the convention.  This year we changed things up a bit and did a big MEGA kimono panel, which was similar to the 101 type panels we do but we tried to be all-inclusive and get as much information in as possible about kimono.  We also did a little kimono roundtable panel that was supposed to be for people to just come and ask questions but it ended up being more of a panel on how to dress a little more formal than a yukata.  Our third panel was completely new to us this year and we did it on Geisha.  I’ll admit this is a topic I’ve been a little hesitant to present on but Quat took over and did a majority of the research so it turned out ok.  We had a good-sized audience for that panel too which was refreshing and everyone was very respectful about the topic.  I didn’t get as many pictures as I had wanted to over the weekend.  Never even got a shot of my outfit on Saturday but here are a few that I did manage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday goodies

I wanted to wait to do this post until I had everything actually in hand.  I got a few nice things for Holiday presents and wanted to share but I had to wait a little while for some of them to come in the mail.

I ended up with three obi age from my mother in law.  Unfortunately the colors are a little washed out in the pictures.  The bottom one with the yellow shibori is really a bright, happy sunshine/lemony yellow.  I’m not really fond of pink but I have quite a few informal pink obi jime so I thought I’d get something to go with those and the white is just sort of neutral if I can’t find anything else.

 

 

 

 

I also got this book on how to sew yukata/kimono from my husband.  It has a pattern included so I want to get that out and have a look at it sometime soon.  I’d really like to start making some informal summer pieces to wear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the Immortal Geisha holiday swap I got this neat hand-made hada juban and susoyoke from Quat.  It’s nice because it’s made of cotton and I don’t have to worry about washing it when I need too.  I see me getting a lot of use out of this in the future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did anyone get any cool kimono related items over the holidays?

New Years Eve Celebration

Our Kimono De Jack group decided to go out to dinner on New Years Eve for our December meet up.  I had this beautiful outfit planned but sadly did not end up wearing it that night.  I had been feeling a little on the sick side and the weather that day wasn’t very nice.  Lots of snow and ice and slush and the thought of getting all dressed up was just not appealing to me.  Soooo…I ended up wearing my spider kiku haori that I got since I wanted to wear something kimono related.

Here you can see us all dressed up to ring in the New Year.  My husband was with us as well but was not wearing kimono so he took the photo for us instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the outfit I had planned to wear.  I dressed up in it today for some practice since Ohayo-con is right around the corner.  Since I was planning on it being cold I got my mother in law to knit me the arm warmers to go with it.  I was having some trouble with my collars since I didn’t bother to bind my chest down; which is why they look so floppy.

2013 Resolutions and looking back at 2012

Happy New Year everyone!  Today I’m going to talk about my past resolutions for 2012 and set new ones for 2013!

Here are my resolutions from last year:

1. I am not buying any more kimono or obi this year until I can get a few more basic accessories.  Things on my much needed list include new zori, new geta, and more obi-age.  I’ve come to realize that I really hate buying these particular items but I really do need them.  I’m just going to have to suck it up and shell out some cash for these babies.  What can I say, I cringe at these items because they are usually expensive and I’m cheap.

Well…I sort of followed this resolution.  I did in fact not buy any kimono at all this year and only ended up with one obi which was an item I would have regretted not buying.  I did get a pair of new zori and two new pair of geta plus various komono items.  I’m still lacking in obi-age though so my Christmas money this year is going solely to the purchase of those.

2. Make some sort of promotional material to hand out at panels and workshops.  I’m still playing around with the idea of business cards or pamphlets.  Also I need a lot of Quat’s input on this one but I’d really like to have these ready by spring.

This sort of happened as well.  Quat formed a Kimono De Jack group for Ohio and we now have business cards for that.  We are still in the process of coming up with a card though for other kimono related activities that are not De Jack exclusive.

3.  Acquire more research material: books, magazines, ect on kimono and kimono related culture.  I’ve thought about trying to write some informational papers for a local newspaper and want to round out my collection of these items some more.

I only got one new book this year and it actually came yesterday!  It is a yukata sewing book with instructions on making yukata and even has an included pattern!  There are also instructions for making various other komono items and easy obi.  I can’t wait to really sit down with it and start figuring things out!

2013 Resolutions:

1. I recently acquired a copy of Rosetta Stone for learning Japanese.  This year I would really like to expand my Japanese vocabulary and learn to write kimono and kitsuke related words in the appropriate style (Hirigan, Katakana or Kanji).  I believe this will help me in searching Japanese language kimono sites and may actually push me to finally buy something off Rakuten!

2. I would like to acquire more everyday wear items such as more komon and an iromuji.  While I have a few formal outfits I’d like to complete with proper accessories I don’t see me wearing them often enough to warrant buying those acessories unless I can find the ‘perfect’ deal for them.  This year is going to be all about kimono functionality! 

3. Stop buying vintage zori!  Even if I lengthen the hano on them my feet are just too wide to wear them comfortably.  I still have not worn the beautiful pair I bought this year because my little toes hang over the edge waaaaay tooooo much.  Honestly I just need to not depend on e-bay as much anymore.  I can get better fitting items elsewhere.

4.  Here is the big one!  I want to actually sewing an unlined kimono for myself this year.  I have some beautiful black stripped wool suit material just waiting to be made into a casual everyday piece.  Right now I am working on my sewing skills by trying to make some functional tabi.  This is proving more difficult than originally thought but it is teaching me a lot.  Once I get an acceptable pair of tabi done I will venture forth into kimono making territory.

Do you have any kimono resolutions this year?