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?