Winter Maiko, originally uploaded by SnowFoxCreations.
Found when I was cleaning my room. It had gotten lost (and crumpled! D:) under some random items before I could scan it a few months ago, and I’d forgotten about it. ^^;;;;;

I love the winter kimono motifs, and I’d wanted to do a winter-themed maiko ensemble for a while, ^^ (Featured by SnowFoxCreations)

I’ve started to like this pairing a bit recently. It’s cute. ^^ It *sort of* makes sense, since Kurama and Yukina are the sweetest characters in Yuu Yuu Hakusho.

Mainly, though, they’re just both fun to draw. :3

I also got a bunch of things for less than $2.00 USD apiece from Yamatoku Classic’s Ebay Store. Two yabane patterned komon + a michiyuki that looks a *little* bit like Megumi’s from “Rurouni Kenshin.” (I also have an ama michiyuki which looks more like hers- I could easily fold it up and baste it to make it look short enough.) Guess who’s going to have a lot of Meiji-era fun at the next cosplay convention? ;) I also now have the right-colored kimono items to go as Yukishiro Tomoe. :3 I can’t quite decide who to cosplay as yet, but it’s fun to have a lot of options. (And it would have to be a kimono-wearing character, of course. X3 )

The kimono I got from Yamatoku:

I also bought that antique rose-painted Nagoya obi I’ve been eyeing for months. The seller relisted it so many times, and I was a bit concerned that they’d quit relisting it, so… ^^;

I’m thinking that it may be from the time immediately following WWII- I’ve heard reports of kimono/obi being ‘painted’ in this manner since dyeing was too expensive in the post-war economy. The fabric is very thick and luxurious- I *think* that it’s silk, but I’ve never felt anything quite like it. :?

Really, though, I bought it because I love roses and wanted to wear it with this Taisho-era irotomesode. And it would have been JUST PERFECT, but after ordering it, I remembered that Nagoya obi are a bit too informal for tomesode. ^^; Not that anyone in my state would even notice that. TT_TT I live in the middle of a kimono desert… :(

Blogged because this is the best obi ever. #__# (MANEKI-NEKO!!!!)

Found via an IGF thread, which is where I find a lot of my links. ^^;

X3 Bought from an American seller for $10.00 USD + shipping. No one else bid, and the item was just labeled as being a kimono obi.

It’s a completely reversible maru obi, and the motifs seem to be Taisho Roman (note the Western playing cards on one side.)

I had been needing a maru obi, but they were all so expensive. @_@ Not knowing what else to do, I prayed for one… Hence my $10.00 obi with only local shipping costs.

And it has botan! X3 Yay!!!

Bit by bit, my plans for Taisho-era geisha henshin are coming together. X3 Fwahahaha…

This is the extravagant costume once worn by Tayuu, which were the highest level of Japanese courtesan in olden times. Unlike geisha, tayuu were prostitutes, although they could refuse customers. While the geisha district was Gion, the Tayuu were based in Shimabara.

Tayuu would wear layer after layer of kimono, a red juban beneath and a thick uchikake on the top. They wore LOTS of hair ornaments (geisha and maiko only wear 2 or 3 at most!) and the best way to tell the difference between Tayuu and other people is that Tayuu *always* tie their obi in the front, which is something NO ONE ELSE does in modern times. They also wear no socks with their geta, and their geta are usually REALLY high like platform shoes.

After WWII, prostitution was outlawed- so although a few Tayuu still exist, they’re just entertainers like geisha now, rather than offering *other* services. The story of tayuu is a tragic one- many of them were forced into that job when young- but now they can follow the form of dancing and costumes of the profession without the sexual aspects.

Note that their outer robe (“uchikake”) is the same type worn as an outermost robe by brides in traditional weddings, and it’s basically the fanciest type of kimono still in use. Uchikake are thick, luxurious, often richly embroidered and have padded hems so that they can trail behind on the ground when being worn. (When tayuu wear an uchikake outside, they often tie it up so that it’s more or less knee-length, since city streets have dirt and stuff.)

(Since this is a very unorthodox summary, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t cite this in a research paper. PLEASE. TT_TT I know way more about kimono than geisha, and way more about geisha than tayuu…)

BTW an “oiran” is almost the same thing as a tayuu, although a bit different.

This Flickr user has tons of galleries of kimono book and obi musubi book scans. The galleries are here.

Project Gallery: Deconstructing an Iromuji

I recently took apart an awase iromuji with the intent of removing the (truly nasty) old lining and also resizing it, since it was apparently made for someone much shorter (iromuji tend to run shorter than other kimono for some reason.) I also wanted to see how the kimono was sewn and learn the intricacies of its design via the deconstruction.

I was a bit surprised by what I found when deconstructing it- there was some lovely fabric hidden in the eri (collar) and there were some very strange inconsistencies in its makeup- at least, when compared to the “proper” types of kimono consruction listed in my book. However, I have grown attached to “peachy” and I plan on resewing her when I have time.

I thought that some of you might be interested in peachy’s interior and the stitches used, so I mapped my progress with photos of almost every step and uploaded them to my gallery. Hopefully, this will be as useful to you as it was to me.

x-posted KimonoSuki SnowFoxCreations The Happy Fish

Someone made a junihitoe out of denim… 0_0 I’m not sure what to think about this, beyond admiring the creativity of whomever came up with the idea and the determination of whomever carried it out…

It’s both cosplay and kitsuke! I love to pick characters who wear kimono and then buy authentic kimono of that type. :3 Yukina, the ice maiden from Yuu Yuu Hakusho, wears a pale blue iromuji, dark blue obi and red nagajuban, so I chose those items with the intention of also wearing them regularly (it doesn’t hurt that Yukina and I seem to have similar tastes.)

This is the first time I’ve worn my ‘blue mystery obi.’ I picked it up at a local antique store, and it’s very weird: it’s made of a striped weave and some sort of very stiff, semi-transparent fabric. The type of obi appears to be fukuro (and mochihearts, who examined it, agreed) but I’m not sure what the item’s history is. It came to the store from an estate which also produced a presumably pre-1950 young girl’s kimono (which I also bought,) so I’m assuming that the obi is quite old. It appears to be made out of some sort of synthetic fabric, but I could be wrong. I’m toying with the idea of taking tons of photos and posting a ‘what on earth is this thing’ entry at IGF… Whatever the obi is, though, I love it.

My lack of a red nagajuban has long been a source of annoyance for me (I have tons of jubn, but they’re all white) and due to financial constraints, I haven’t been able to afford one. After seeing photos of ‘dounuki’ and finding some lovely red fabric with ‘shippou’ patterns for sale at WalMart, I got an idea… And, so, I started sewing, which generated a kinda-sorta red juban, or which I may post photos later.

I only need to modify the shoes to add the ‘rain covers’ yukina wears. I’m also toying with the idea of making a red maple kanzashi to go with the outfit, but I like the snowflake kanzashi so much, and it somehow seems more appropriate…

The junihitoe kimono in the front of this photo is of the "Yuki no Shita" color scheme, which is the one I plan on making when I have time. Isn’t the color scheme nice?

It would be a good idea to visit tatsushu‘s galleries, since he has so many nice things there.

Finding reproductions of the ‘murasaki no usuyou’ color scheme of junihitoe is difficult. :( I finally found this at Flickr, though. Isn’t it lovely?

The photographer has all sorts of lovely Japanese-themed photos, including more junihitoe.

I :heart: Yuzen silk painting. ^_^