Friday 25 January 2008

Bamboo

This is my "new" Meiji era bamboo pattern kimono. When I saw this kimono for sale I thought she was really special. The pattern is very subdued, as are the colours. It's a fine repeating pattern of off- white bamboo on a green-ish background. There are five huge family crests, chrysanthemum with a cherry blossom hart; sadly I haven’t been able to find what crest it is. The lining is bright red and best of all, there are two layers!
Two layers in the sleeves and two at the bottom half; almost two identical kimono.
Bamboo I thought is good for winter, and the two layers make it warm too.
I paired her with a fun off-white obi (might have been white ones) with huge peony flowers. I do not own a lot of older obi, but I thought this one was good for this kimono, giving a nice contrast, in colour and in pattern.

4 comments:

Jane said...

Very lovely. You are very lucky to be able to wear kimono, my figure is too 'Rubinsesque' to fit into a kimono. But I still enjoy the ones hanging on my wall - I buy from Ichiroya too.

Unknown said...

Well thank you, yes I guess I am lucky... don´t know really. Wearing kimono is really fun, I also think `rubinesque` ladies can wear kimono very well, after all, in Japan all body-shapes are present too...

Anonymous said...

Beautiful outfit! Was it difficult to dress in two layers? I have a dounuki I'm altering to fit better - once it is fixed, I wish to wear it.

I think the obi contrasts perfectly against the kimono - it really gives a wonderful Meiji air - like you could step right out of a vintage photograph!

Unknown said...

Thank you Naomi!
No it wasn't more difficult to dress in this one because it is a "fake" donuki. Only the sleeves and lower kimono are double, but it looks and feels like two kimono.

I do have a view donuki and yes, then it is really hard to dress, thats why they arn't on my blog yet... still practicing ^_^