Kimono challenge 4 - Your least used kimono item(s)

It's been a while, and I don't know if September will see kimono in my house...

The last time I wore kimono was at the Floriade (see previous post). Since then it was mostly things that had to be done in the garden and around the house, the usual days at work and other things. You might have read on facebook, but since the beginning of this year there's a little piece of garden just for myself. I'm a real newbie with gardening, so this is a big experiment for me. If you're interested you can read my (dutch) blog about it, or see some pictures on flickr.

But for now, because I didn't do kimono for about 2 months, I thought about the kimono challenge!

1. How did you discover and get into kimono?
2. Your dearest kimono item(s).
3. Your most used kimono item(s) (not counting jubans, datejimes etc.).
4. Your least used kimono item(s).
5. Your favourite coordination(s) so far.
6. What do you like and don’t like about kimono.
7. Kimono confessions. Did you know that…
8. Your dream kitsuke items (or at least items you really really want but can’t get for whatever reason).
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.

My least used kimono-items
Actually, there are a lot of kimono and obi that I haven't worn yet:

This obi was a gift from Misuchi, but I'm very much ashamed to say that I haven't worn it yet

This hanhaba I bought with my first yukata, which is a very playful blue with pink fish. Haven't worn it (yet).







Haven't worn this one either. But my guess is, this obi has to have some work done, to make it more stiff.











These are kimono I haven't worn, or worn just at home. There are more kimono that I haven't catalogued yet, so here are a few...

Floriade with Kimono de Jack

Last Friday (August 3rd) a little group of KdJ visited the Floriade in Holland, a world-horticultural expo that's held every 10 years.

You can find more photo's on my Flickr-page!

Once a month a kimono - July

Finally I was able to do some kitsuke, and with a reason... Together find some fellow-Kimono de Jack NL 'members' I'm going to the Floriade. Floriade is a World Horticultural Expo, held once every 10 years. And this year it's held from April until October.

Participating countries each have their own stand, so does Japan. That's why we're going in kimono!

Of course I had to practive my kitsuke before going, and see that the outfit I wanted to wear looked good. It's the same yukata Linda has, the first kimono I have in a TL-size, and it's very comfy! Combined with a tsuke eri and a beige/purple hanhaba obi, purple obi age and purple/lightbrown obijime ^_^

And just before the end of July!

July...

It's been a while since my last post... That's because of vacation and other things to do here at home. But maybe I'll wear kimono again soon!

Vacation was 2 weeks in Italy, in the regions Tuscany and Umbria. So now I have to get the pictures organised, converted (all photo's were shot in RAW-format), and the photo-album has to be made. Another thing I have to do, is to turn my traveljournal into a digital journal. It's written in a school notebook, so now I have to type it all over in a Word document. Which is nice, because I can relive the vacation all over again ^_^

Another thing I've done, was last week. I've told you about the sewing maching my mother gave my on New Years Day. Well, I've finally made my first item on the machine! It's not a big thing, but a little apron for a handpuppet made after a model in white fabric.

Now I got to know the sewing machine a little, I want to try and make a tsuke eri (or maybe more) with velcro, and lots of han eri for it.


And last week we went to the lovely city of Gent in Belgium for the Gentse Feesten (a free festival with lots of music all over the city). On Sunday we stumbled upon a secondhand bookmarket where I found 2 books that were meant to be mine:

I'll keep you posted!

Combined: Once a month a kimono - May / Kimono challenge 3

Unfortunately I didn't wear kimono anymore after my last post about my new yukata on International Kimono Day...

And since the summer holidays are coming up, I doubt if I can wear kimono this month. But I'll try and do my best!














So, on to the Kimono Challenge!

1. How did you discover and get into kimono?
2. Your dearest kimono item(s).
3. Your most used kimono item(s) (not counting jubans, datejimes etc.).
4. Your least used kimono item(s).
5. Your favourite coordination(s) so far.
6. What do you like and don’t like about kimono.
7. Kimono confessions. Did you know that…
8. Your dream kitsuke items (or at least items you really really want but can’t get for whatever reason).
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.

My most used kimono item(s)...

I don't know if accessoires also count, so I'll share a few items.

What I need most now, and I'm thinking about making them myself, are obiages! At the moment I've got 4 shibori obiage: standard red and black and 2 kinds of pink, and 4 'normal' silk obiage: black, pink, purple and green. Of my accessoires the green obiage is the most used item.

Another accessoire I have more of are zori/geta. Well more.... I've got 1 pair of geta and 2 pairs of zori, and the pair I use most are my golden zori. A former colleague of my boyfriend came from Japan and asked if I needed anything for kitsuke. So I asked for zori in my size (they are 25 of 27 cm). He did some searching and found me my golden zori. They're a perfect fit, and that's why I wear them a lot. And gold matches almost everything ^_^.
I have to say though, the other zori I'm wearing more and more...

As for kimono and obi being most used, I don't really have one. If I have to guess, I think my most used kimono and obi are those who make my Peacock outfit. Just because they are such a perfect combination I've worn them a couple of times (to an exhibition with Rota and Misuchi, a private tea ceremony, at home and I've dressed my sister in them).

(I'll add the pictures of the obiage and zori tomorrow or Sunday!)

Happy International Kimono Day!

Today is International Kimono Day, so I've decided to do some kitsuke and wear the yukata I bought from Bangasa Kimono! The obi musubi is the Multi-leaf Carolien and I tried 2 weeks ago

  

Cotton is so different from silk, which flows and folds so easily. But then again, if something goes wrong and you get a (little) stain on the yukata, you can just throw it in the washer ^_^

And since I was in yukata anyway, I also put my 'new' furisode on one of my dummies. This beautiful furisode with shibori, embroidery, lovely stylized cranes woven into the fabric and an extra soft pink haneri sewn in, was also previously owned by the lovely Bangasa Kimono.

  

Ever since I saw a white/creamy furisode with red shibori when Misuchi, Rota and I visited an exposition at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, I've wanted one. And now I have!!!

Finding a right obi (in my current collection) was a bit difficult, but this blue nagoya obi is a good match. Nice to know, Misuchi has a twin of this obi, but in black. We still have to wear them together someday...

Musubi practice

Last Sunday, Carolien came over to take a peek at my kimono-collection. She is one of few who lives in the south of our little country, and is the one who lives nearest of me of our Kimono de Jack-members.

Of course all my kimono got out of my little Ikea-'tansu' (which is getting pretty full) and my obi out of their container (which I can't close without a big bump in it's cover)! It's nice to show them to someone who loves kimono and obi, and it even helps making new kimono-obi combinations.

After lunch we put the kimono and obi back in their 'tansu' and container and decided to practice some musubi for hanhaba (over our normal clothes). Hanhaba are so much fun and easy to wear, and you don't really have to be afraid to damage them, at least not mine since they are all synthetic.

Our first try was the 'ballon flower' (according to Google Translate). Carolien's version wasn't exactly like the photo's, but way better than mine!















Next one: multi-leaf (again, Google Translate...). We both got this one quite good, and it was really easy. The only tricky thing is to get the start-lenght right, to make sure the bottom two 'leaves' are bigger than the two upper 'leaves'.

The last musubi we tried was the weeping cherry tree (GT again). My version was a disaster, Carolien's wasn't that bad, except that the end of the obi was a bit too long.




We had fun trying and tying these musubi! But sometimes it was hard figuring out what the next step was... with some instructions we just needed an extra picture.

Kimono Challenge #2 - Your dearest kimono item(s)

The kimono challenge:

1. How did you discover and get into kimono?
2. Your dearest kimono item(s).
3. Your most used kimono item(s) (not counting jubans, datejimes etc.).
4. Your least used kimono item(s).
5. Your favourite coordination(s) so far.
6. What do you like and don’t like about kimono.
7. Kimono confessions. Did you know that…
8. Your dream kitsuke items (or at least items you really really want but can’t get for whatever reason).
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.

Your dearest kimono item(s)

Pfff, that's a tough question... One of my dearest kimono items would be my orange furisode.

It's the first kimono I ever bought, and it's given me my new and dear friend Misuchi.

I also love my hitoe peacock kimono (don't really know if it's a tsukesage or a houmongi), together with my peacock-feather obi. Just because it's such a perfect match!

The last one I'll post, is an olivegreen houmongi (I guess, really terrible at this) I got from Misuchi, for helping with her website. She saw I had an orange obi with carts on it, and this kimono also has little carts on it. And this is also a perfect match.

 

Starter of the challenge: Kira Kira Kimono

Other bloggers doing the challenge:

• AF’s Japan Now & Then
• Along The Silk Road; Adventures With(in) Kimono
• BebeTaian
• Geishaface
• HikariKimono
• KimonoAi
• Kitty Kanzashi
• Kyoto RedBird
• My Kimono
• Naomi no Kimono Asobi
• SilberRegen
• Strawberry Kimono
• Takoya-Kimono

Once a month a kimono - April

Yesterday (April 20th) my boyfriend and I had some very nice company over... He works at a Japanese firm you'll probably know, FUJIFILM. And yesterday a Japanese colleague and her friend came to see my kimono collection!

It was so much fun and we had a great evening. The only time they saw so many kimono was when they were at a shop/store to choose which furisode to wear on their Coming of Age Day in Japan! The biggest compliment I got, was that they told me I looked so comfortable wearing kimono.

Those two women were really sweet. We talked about a lot, my boyfriend and his colleague talked a little about work, and her friend and me talked about movies and books (we both like fantasy). And they liked my cooking, yay :-)

And of course... I just had to wear kimono!
  
The obi is a hakata obi I bought from a fellow kimono-lover in the UK, Bangasa Kimono. She's selling some of her kimono and obi, and when I saw she was selling a few hakata obi, I saw my name all over them! And this purple one was one of them ^_^

It's a perfect match for my pink houmongi, don't you think? With this houmongi I now have at least 2 obi to match it with, this purple hakata and the black with pink rose. I read in the book 'The new kimono', and have heard the saying 1 kimono, 3 obi. Maybe I will start a new challenge, finding 3 obi to match 1 kimono...

Kimono Challenge! #1 - How did you discover and get into kimono?

Some may have seen this challenge on other kimono/kitsuke blogs, and now I'm starting it too ^_^

The kimono challenge questions are:

1. How did you discover and get into kimono?
2. Your dearest kimono item(s).
3. Your most used kimono item(s) (not counting jubans, datejimes etc.).
4. Your least used kimono item(s).
5. Your favourite coordination(s) so far.
6. What do you like and don’t like about kimono.
7. Kimono confessions. Did you know that…
8. Your dream kitsuke items (or at least items you really really want but can’t get for whatever reason).
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.

How did I get the kimono-bug...? Well, I guess it's been slumbering since I was young, always finding kimono pretty but not that into it (yet). Until I got a book-giftcard from an aunt, of which I got a copy of Mineko Iwasaki's autobiography.

From that moment on it started to get me thinking of kimono. This resulted of getting my first kimono in 2007, the bright orange furisode, and meeting Misuchi for the first time!

And now it's 5 years, 23 kimono, 2 yukata, 4 juban, 26 obi (7 hanhaba, 8 fukuro, 11 nagoya) and some komono later....

Starter of the challenge: Kira Kira Kimono

Other bloggers doing the challenge:

• AF’s Japan Now & Then
• Along The Silk Road; Adventures With(in) Kimono
• BebeTaian
• Geishaface
• HikariKimono
• KimonoAi
• Kitty Kanzashi
• Kyoto RedBird
• My Kimono
• Naomi no Kimono Asobi
• SilberRegen
• Strawberry Kimono
• Takoya-Kimono

Spring is here?

Let's hope snow stays away and the sun will shine more and more...

Once a month a kimono - March

This month has been a busy kimono month for me! I've worn 4 kimono this month:

  
  
Seeing these outfits together makes it difficult to choose a favorite of these 4...

The light purple iromuji with peach hakata obi I think is very classy and good if you go to a tea ceremony.

The same light purple iromuji with a different obi. Fun to see how lighting makes colors different ^_^.

Crème komon with colored cartwheels and a black-red hakata obi. This kimono feels great and is a good size for me.

The orange furisode will always be one of my favorites, simply because it's the first kimono I ever bought, and through it I've met Misuchi.

I guess my winner for this month is number 3! What do you think?

Sakura Matsuri - more pictures

You can find pictures of Sakura Matsuri here, and I'll update if I have more. But I can't resist posting a few here...

Sakura Matsuri 2012

The city of Amstelveen hosts a Sakura Matsuri every year, but unfortunately that's mostly on a weekday. Until this year! This year it was held on a Sunday, so perfect for our Kimono de Jack NL group to go ^_^.

We had a great turn-up, and at some point it looked like we were the event instead of the sakura. When we were taking pictures near a blossoming sakura-tree, even press-photographers were taking pictures!

It was a lovely day with lots of sun, the Matsuri was great and nice to see members of our group again and meet new ones. Let's hope next year the Matsuri will be held on a Saturday or Sunday again...

More pictures
Pictures from Linda

Going to Kodo

Tonight my boyfriend and I are going to see Kodo at the theatre. We've already seen shows of Yamato and Tenko, so I'm very curious about this show.

You've already seen my outfiton one of my dummy, but I've actually never worn this kimono. But instead of the big red shibori obiage, I've picked a pale pink with bits of shibori (a gift from Misuchi). And, just as used on the dummy, a black obi age used as a date eri (tips about putting a date eri between a juban an kimono collar are most welcome ^_^).

I'll let you know about the show ^_^

Nihon Buyo

I'm so late with posting this, sorry!!! Tuesday march 6th Misuchi, her boyfriend and me went to see Nihon Buyo in Amsterdam. It was amazing ^_^

In total we saw 3 kind of dances, a modern dance called Senoo, a Kabuki-like dance called Awamochi and the main dance, Sekidera Komachi. The last dance was performed by Nishikawa Senzo (79 years old!), who has the title of Living National Treasure of Japan!

All 3 dances were beautiful, but Awamochi I liked best because it was the most traditional dance. The dance performed by Nishikawa Senzo was also beautiful, but his movements were so subtle, too subtle for me. The dancers of the first dance wore very pretty pink ro komon with purple sakura leaves.

And we were not the only ones in kimono! It was kimono-spotting at the theatre ^_~ Not many people were in kimono, but we saw at least 5, at that was much! There was a very old lady, in a greenish kimono but with an obi that looked like it had lace on it, very sweet.

Next week I've got 2 events for kimono! First is a performance Kodo, Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble in Eindhoven. Second is the Cherry Blossom Festival in Amstelveen, at the Japanese Park. Very looking forward to both events!

Unexpected kitsuke

Why unexpected? Well, I thought it was going to be a normal Sunday, without any kimono/kitsuke. But we heard that an aunt of my boyfriend was coming, and I knew she wanted to see me in kimono. So, I did some kitsuke after all today... :-)

   

The kimono is an iromuji that I bought in a pack of 6 iromuji from Ichiroya. It's a lovely light purple and it's got a beautifully woven pattern of leaves and streams. I paired it with a peach hakata nagoya obi (bought from Bangasa Kimono) and a purple obiage/obijime set. And that turned out really pretty!