Yukata syle: English Garden Party

 Accessorizing your yukata can be as easy as a trip to the local mall. Obviously they don't have obi, obijime, or geta, but they have other fun stuff like flower clips for your hair, cute handbags, and even brooches that can work as obidome. Don't forget straw hats, sunglasses, hairbands, etc. It can be an endless search looking for just the perfect authentic Japanese clutch purse or kinchaku to match your yukata, so often times, I just look closer to home. Inspired by my own green yukata (Still hasn't arrived!), and the floral handbag below, I came up with a cute ensemble that would fit right in at a garden party!



For this ensemble, which I call "English Garden Party", I used accessories mainly from a store that seems to be everywhere nowadays,  Charming Charlie. Their merchandise is priced just right for when you are feeling like something trendy but don't want to spend a whole lot and everything is arranged by color, so it's easy to shop there. And you can shop online if you don't have a store near you.



Here is the breakdown:

This awesome floral handbag is available from Charming Charlie here. 
The enamel butterfly pin is available from Fantasyard for $10.59. It might work as an obidome and is in keeping with the butterfly print on the yukata.

Green straw hat is another Charming Charlie item, on sale for $14.98. The hot pink flower hair clip is also available there for only $7.97!

The green geta are from this store for 3600 yen, size is 23.5cm though, too small for me but I chose them for the color. I don't own any green geta, but they just looked super cute with this yukata and the color is perfect!
The obi? I don't have one this color, so I invented it in Photoshop. A light yellow, cream, or white hanhaba obi shouldn't be too difficult to find online. I do have a white hakata obi but I thought the creamy yellow looked better with the handbag. The lime green summer (open weave) obijime is something I do own. The whole ensemble is really just an idea...you could do something similar.

Let me know what you think of my styling. When the yukata finally arrives, I will have some more ideas for how to dress it up!
Ciao,
~reb

Ichiroya has some large/tall yukata!

Beautiful design with black and white peonies

If you are tall, have long arms like me, or are a true glamazon, check these out- $68.00 US + shipping. They also have lovely extra long hanhaba obi for $20 US if you are looking for a whole outfit! These are really nice yukata in hard to find sizes and they have about 14-15 left. Click here to see these lovelies.

I have a new Facebook page!

Just another way to see what I'm up to. Go check out the Red Hot Kimono page and make sure to "like"!

More news: there is an Obon in Phoenix on June 9th. A group of us are going, so I will post it as an event on my Facebook page. Look for it in a day or two!
~Reb

Fun Friday: my own kimono design idea inspired by Absinthe

Here's another idea for a kimono: this time I used my own artwork.
It's from a photo-montage piece I created a few years ago called "The Green Fairy". If you are familiar with the culture of absinthe, the images used may look familiar. The female figure is from an original advertisement for absinthe circa 1900.

I haven't worked up an obi concept for this kimono yet but a full-color advert for absinthe such as this one would be amazing! Add a gold obiage and soft orange obijime and you would look mahvelous dahling!

Have a wonderful weekend!
~Rebecca