Sha

Bold black sha kimono.
The colours are actually fuchsia with aqua blue (and silver) not blue and red.
Aqua blue hanhaba-obi in Kai no kuchi again.
Hot pink and black obi-jime, too short for me so tied in the back, yes I am missing an obi-dome, *sigh* it's on my wish list, but they are hard to find in something really versatile.
Piece of lace fabric as obi-age.


And a tip I got last year. When you are tall(er), tie the obi lower.
(I probably could have tied it even lower)
But more importantly for comfort (and when you actually have breasts, to prevent those hanging over the obi) tie the obi loose at the top.
So, place the obi-ita low on your belly, about three or four fingers under the navel and tilt the top forward, to help with this I sometimes put a rolled sock in the top of the obi-ita. Now, wrap the obi around quite tight, but only tight at the bottom so the top stays kind of open. Tie everything secure and remove the sock (or what ever you've put there).

The obi is now secure at the lower point and comfortably loose at the top. This way it is still possible to breath with ease, eat something and move around all day.

Also, there is a lot of space now for the obi-age and for what ever you want to put there, wallet, mobile, make-up(bag) etc.
I did exaggerate it a bit to show. But, I must say, when in Tokyo I actually saw a kimono shop owner dressed like that, the top was even more away from her and this huge household wallet fitted perfectly in the gap. As did various kimono ties and who knows what she might have felt she needed.

Yabane

Blue and white yukata with purple yukata obi.
Blue and white obi-jime to hold the knot. Tied in a rose-like bow. I tied the obi in a standard bunko-musubi first, but it felt way too childish, so I tied it again and this time in kai-no-kuchi variation. Ah, that felt better ^_^
BB geta and I was off to work.
I guess my collegues and employers know, by now, I love blue the most ^_^

Blue ro

Fresh blue ro synthetic kimono with a classic pattern, looks like patch-work, all " different" fabrics with a different traditional pattern. Some sayagata, some asanoha etc.
Again the black silk nagoya obi in a course weave .
Lace tabi and soft lilac zori with embroidered straps.

Dolly is wearing a "new" antique ro silk kimono with yellow nagoya obi, both antique silk, both with bush-clover pattern both bought in Tokyo.

I found this kimono in a small store in Harajuku, but was doubting to buy her.
I left the store and went on.

In another store I saw this cute yellow nagoya and thought, she's perfect for that kimono!
So, I bought the (very cheap) obi and went back to the first store and checked... Yes I liked the combination and also bought the kimono.

Feeling happy *sigh*
I found another treasure for my (antique) collection

Big sha stripes

Ikea again!
I love these fresh colours, Ikea colours, blue and yellow ^_^
With some white to add more freshness.

There are a view black stripes in this kimono so i thought a course black summer weave obi was ok.

This kimono is very small, so no ohashori let alone a decent wrist to wrist size.

Still I think it's a fun one, these vintage kimono are so pretty, I really like the long sleeves, though on this one they might be a bit too long for me, still it's ok I think as I am quit tall myself (in kimono world that is) in all other cases I am very average ^_^

To enhance the yellow I used yellow with white summer obi-jime and obi age, the obi-age is actually soft green, but almost yellow in appearance.

Ro Asanoha Komon

Last week I received this cute, bright and bold polyester ro kimono from Ichiroya.
I love her! Thank you Yuka-san and Ichiro-san!
This kimono is large, and I mean really large. She's actually a bit taller hen me and the wingspan is actually ok ^_^
As this kimono is so bright and bold I looked for a calm obi, this soft pink hakata-ori seemed ok. But, I did not want to be boring, so bright purple summer obi-jime and even brighter pink summer obi-age.
I forgot to look for my lace tabi, but plain white seems just ok to me.
Though the lace might add to a summer feel.

Coincidentally I was reading a kimono blog, do not remember who's and she told being happy it was July (first) so she could wear ro and sha. She also mentioned that this wearing ro and sha is not as strictly anymore as it was. This, she added because of global warming, but she also mentioned, she still kept the first of July as the ro/sha changing date. Funny I just received Yuka-san's news-letter also talking about this season of ro and sha being allowed earlier and longer, not only July and August, but from mid June till till mid September! Lucky me ^_^ (though, I am a little bit like that Japanese girl, liking that first of July date...

Eggplant coloured yukata

sadly, it's cold again.
On the other hand, perfect for wearing kimono to work.
I chose my eggplant coloured yukata with Morning Glory pattern.
Paired with a green hanahaba for yukata. I did wear nagayuban as these china made yukata have fake collar-guards so I can't slit an eri-shin in. Normally I loosen some threads in the side to insert one, but now I flt being in a bit of a hurry that wasn't the best idea.. Nagayuban works too.
It is also possible to tie the kimono in such a way the nagayuban isn't seen, I could have done that, but it occurred to me only when I saw the pictures and realized it's too formal this way...
Because of the hanhaba obi tied in a "real" yukata musubi. And, everything looks absolutely collapsed after the whole day in the store and two very windy bike-rides, *sigh*
Then the tabi, it's all a bit too much of a mismatch. On the other hand, I was comfortably warm and everybody in the store liked it, so I should not be too hard on myself.
But... next time I am in japan I will buy this special cute obi-makura I saw for yukata musubi and a back obi-ita, I like those!
I just couldn't remember why I liked this yukata so much the first time I dressed, and then I remembered, I paired her with a soft sage green hakata ori, that looked way more dressed.

Black ro

Black ro red swirls....
This poly ro kimono I bought from Ichiroya, of course, again.
The kimono is bigger then usual, but also needs to be taken out at the arms. I sometimes think Japanese ladies just have short arms... even when the kimono is long, the wingspan is short... or we western ladies have long arms ^_^I found my ro silk hakata ori. It's just fabric *blush* not a finished obi, but this one seemed best this morning.

So, hoping not to run in to Japanese tourists today I took the change. And *phew* I didn't, no body noticed ^_^
I do not like the accessories, too white. But I could not find any really dark ro and the dark closed weaves looked way too heavy, this was my best bet. Next time I'll try harder.
It's really hard to dress in the morning, knowing you have to get to work in time, especially when the outfit wasn't put out the day before ^_^

I did get a little hot while biking to the store, but after an hour underneath the cool air blower I was ok and actually felt quit comfortable.
The nagajuban is really nice. It's ro weave silk with a bold wave pattern and really long!
I wore geta even though I thought zori would have been more fitting with this kimono... these colours where best.

Oh, and my dolly is wearing a hitoe blue meisen with dragonflies. Which I bought in Japan. Paired with a ro silk maple leave patterned obi I think she looks very cute. Her accessories are better too ^_^

Blue yukata

As the weather is so gorgeous I wanted to wear kimono again.
Yukata, more as it should be.
With no nagajuban.
But I couldn't resist the accessories.
This musubi is getting boring ha... ^_^
But it is so easy!
This blue is really nice I like it a lot.
Though the yukata is not the best quality, it is still nice

I did not want to wear a white obi again so I opted for this aqua hitoe obi, sadly, in real life the colours are a bit better... ahwel you can't have it all. This was a nice and fresh choice for the warm day it turned out to be.But I should have chosen a lighter obi-jime.
Augh, you can see my arm with hadajuban sticking out from under the sleeve...
How to prevent that? I do hope this wasn't too much the case while working... *blush*

Meisen again

I bought this meisen kimono from Ryujapan, I had too...
hihi. Because I love meisen and this one was big, really big.
Also, I love colours like these. Rich and bright and the big bold pattern.
Lucky for me I had this striped hanhaba obi in almost the same colour as the flowers. For me, I like it best when the kimono is very flower-y to have an abstract obi.
So, that was lucky.
The accessories are just light and easy as is the bow, as I wore it to work I like the simple knots better. Makes life more easy.
All in all I like the overall look, bold but still understated.
Too bad my employers weren't back yet, as I dress partly for them ^_^
Very partly, but if you saw her smile, you'd understand...
Oh, and I also dressed in this one when we went to the Kimono Exhibition in "De Kunsthal" but did not take pictures that time so that's why it did not show up here that time. That day I chose it because the exhibition was about Taisho kimono, this seemed appropriate...

Yukata

My new morning glory yukata.
It's a stiff, new China made cheap yukata.
She is very nice though and the weather is still cool so yukata with underwear and all accessories is ok for now. Better for work I think then yukata just as it is, I am scared to feel "undressed" hihi.

I paired this fresh blue with fresh silver white, sayagata pattern dance hanhaba obi, I like the combination, very fresh and summer-y livened with a bright red shibory obi-age and paired with blue obi-jime, the zori are cheap soft rubber with some kind of fake tatami, which does feel nicer when it's not cold outside.

I tried the "rule" or tip from Shino about not to wear more then three colours at ones. Now my favourites, blue, white and red.
It kind off works, it makes everything very quite, but we knew that I guess.

Still, reading about it did make me think. Because kimono tend to be multi-coloured, especially the older ones. Now I do think, when wearing very bold kimono with lots of colours, you can make it either more bold by adding an obi that is very different or, calming everything down by adding an obi in the shade of the main colours found in the kimono... Let's see if I can make some "project" out of that idea.

Ichiroya

One of the highlights of Japan was...
Meeting Yuka-san and Ichiro-san.
My long time favourite kimono sellers. Ichiroya
After years and years of e-mail contact I met with them in real life, and that was really special.
It was a long train journey... and so worth it, I hope to be able to go and meet them again.

銘仙

Red water wave pattern meisen. She was on my wall, longer then it should be there. I try not to have my kimono longer then one month as display, but I am lazy.
Today I finally took her down, in order to change her for a hitoe.
Realizing I never dressed in this kimono I had to try her on.
She's a pain!
Stiff silk and kind of small. After a short struggle I kind of succeeded.
Choosing an obi was hard too, so I went for my black with peony obi, again...
white and red obi jime and a sage green obi age (from the leaves in the obi.
The tabi are black with white clouds pattern.
I wish I had the courage to widen the sleeves, but I feel scared altering an awase kimono. Maybe some day I will...

Strange

I find it very strange that this wisteria kimono is awase, even stranger that another wisteria I have is an hitoe, the blue rain over here already past it's height, how, and when could I wear the hitoe?
Maybe in Japan the blue rain blooms later? (I can't imagine, because Japan is warmer, but... maybe a different kind?) I don't know and never mind I kind of choose this kimono as my spring kimono as I have this pattern in both awase and hitoe...
I guess the hitoe rule isn't that strong. If it's hot, wear hitoe (not that it helps)
Over here it's so cold I choose to wear kimono very often because it's perfect for this strange kind of weather. I can look as if it's spring (with colours etc.) but still feel warm ^_^

This gorgeous vintage kimono asked for a vintage obi, so I picked my black with white shibory again, this time trying very hard to get the purple flower kind of in front because it looked nice with the dark purple of the kimono.
I tied it in a kind of vintage obi bow. Yes everything collapsed on me... two bicycle rides and an 8 hour + working day did the trick.
Never mind I think it's still not embarrassingly collapsed.

The han eri is Mamechiyo's Homage to Holland Tulip, I love her! I am a bit scared to wear them as they are silk, but I feel it's also a shame to leave them in the closet and just look at them...
same goes for the kimono...

Green

Yesterday I should have given a kimono class, but nobody showed up, sadly. I decided anyway to dress in kimono and go spring-y.
Green with blue.
The kimono is a tsumugi and feels cool and coarse, very special. A bit too short and because of the stiffness of tsumugi, not very pliable.
I chose the blue obi because I love blue with green and the pink accessories because the hakake and sleeves are lined in pink.
The the tabi are funky yellow green and purple, the zori mustard shibory, I have no green so these where the best match I thought.
I have worn coloured tabi before and one of the language teachers told me not to do that! I thought... hu? Why not? Black is only for men she said. I blushed of course, told her sorry I knew that but thought, modern times....
I told this story to Yuka-san, from Ichiroya and she told me, black is ok now, indeed it is modern. She explained, my teacher probably was a bit older, left Japan a long time ago and still holds to the rules she learned, besides, she's my teacher (well technically she's not) but at least my elder and she's responsible for my mistakes, she at least feels responsible for me learning everything the best(proper) and right way... Well that's what Yuka-san told me, and I tend to believe her so I am back to wearing black (or coloured tabi, though still reluctantly, white seems after all best in most cases...)

Flowery

Something different, purple flowers!
This kimono was lying in the "to sort" area, I think she's pretty sweet. Also pretty big for a vintage. The fabric is very soft and hard to handle. But I kind of managed. I am not sure about the obi, but the light colour and the blue and green appealed to me. As these shades are also in the kimono. And, it's not flowery.

Purple obi jime from the kimono and a bright orange obi age because I figured, there's a hint of orange in the kimono pattern.
Maybe the orange from the obi age would show the hint of orange more... not sure.
But it turned out all fun and spring-like.
The pattern on the kimono is three seasoned, which always strikes me as a bit odd for a vintage,but that might be stupid, not everybody can or could buy fancy season appropriate kimono. One for all awase seasons might have been enough. Makes sense.
The strange thing is, everything looked better in real live then in photo. Usual it's the other way around ^_^