Tsukesage Kimono: Can You Spot the Design Flaw?

I'm re-posting a link to Ichiroya's Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.506 since it's such a great story! The nuances of kimono manufacturing and design never fail to intrigue.

Read more about tsukusage kimono and formality level here.  
The kimono shown below does not have the design flaw...use it for comparison.

A vintage 1970's tsukusage kimono, courtesy of retrotogo.com

Enjoy your Monday!

~Reb

Too Freakin' Hot to Wear But There is Always time to Shop!

Stacks of miscellaneous fabrics

Hello Everyone!
We had a record-setting June, with triple-digit temperatures for the entire month. Well, it's still too hot to do anything kimono-related! However, sometimes opportunities present themselves in unexpected ways. A friend forwarded an e-mail from a woman with a collection of kimono and Japanese fabrics she is trying to sell and wasn't sure how to find buyers. We had been e-mailing back and forth and I finally went to see her collection a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, everything was extremely well-organized, with items arranged by color on shelves in neat rows. She had a ton of fabric period; too bad it wasn't all kimono items!

Stacks of haori and kimono

She was interested in the fabrics and smaller patterns, so she bought inexpensive items by color, so she had many every-day komon kimono, haori, obijime, as well as pieces of obi and kimono to use for craft projects. She bought many items from Texuba, the kimono seller that used to be in Marina Del Ray, CA. Sadly, no furisode, houmongi, obi, obiage, or anything Taisho. However, she did have a few really cute items- especially obijime. Everything still had the original price tags and all of the obijime and haori himo were brand-new, with the original Japanese tags on them.

A pile of obijime

Haori himo still in their original plastic sleeves

I went to her home, surveyed the collection and gave her some pointers on how and where to sell the items. Luckily, she was already set up and selling other stuff on eBay, so that seemed like the perfect way to clear out her excess inventory. She did have a few really nice items such as a nice indigo and white yukata and a post WWII-era komon with a funky modern pattern. These two items were made for tiny people...way too small for me.

Of course, I found a few items for myself, mainly obijime. I did find a super awesome hitoe kimono in a lovely grey, black, navy, gold, and red stripe.

Stripes!! Hitoe!!

I love this color combination

And I managed to find six obijime as well as a haori himo for my orange and green psychedelic haori. 

Six NEW obijime!

New haori himo

Detail of the multi-colored obijime 

Detail of the terracotta obijime

The obijime are pretty awesome. I think I picked out all of the coolest ones. My two favorites are the multi-colored diamond pattern; it has a bit of gold thread in it and the colors look very "southwesty" to me. The other one I love is the navy blue with the orange dots. Sorry my detail photo of that one didn't come out. Strangely enough, everything seems to coordinate! I'm not sure what obi to pair with the kimono, but I will have to play around and post some photos. Or just turn the air conditioner on at 6:00 am (to ensure maximum coolness of course), add a fan or two and put the kimono on! However, it makes me feel hot and sticky just thinking about wearing a kimono right now!
Arigato,
~Reiko (Reb)

A Few Photos from a Day in Phoenix

Some friends and I went to the "Strolling in Yukata" event at Ro Ho En on April 27th. It was really nice....and almost too hot for strolling! At 4:30 in the afternoon, it was in the 90's. They had more activities and entertainment this time, including folk dancing. However, people were dancing in the sun, so we sat in the shade, drank sparkling sake, and just watched!

I recognized the music and dances from Obon...of course, since it's not Obon season, so it was just called folk dancing. Shade would have been a really good idea and probably would have got us out of our seats to dance.
I forgot my camera (D'oh!), so I only took a few photos with my phone. Friends took lots more photos, so maybe I can post some more photos soon!

Despite the typical spring in Phoenix weather, the garden looked gorgeous. There were baby ducks in the pond competing for food with the koi, a few remnants of blooms on the jacaranda trees, some iris blooming under some trees, and the grass was very green, which looked cool and inviting.

Unfortunately, the tea house was closed but they had a nice kimono display outside featuring two uchikake hanging up, which is a special kimono worn like a coat (no obi) over the kakeshita, the wedding kimono. There was also a few other items: obi, formal gold zori, and what looked like a black furisode.

While we were there, we did hear a rumor that they would move up the strolling event earlier, probably because of the hot weather. It would be great if they could make it in March after Matsuri! It would benefit everyone....attendees, entertainers, and of course bring more people in if the weather were a bit more hospitable! Making it a bit later in the day would be nice as well...maybe 5pm-9pm.

Afterwards, we all went to Cibo for pizza and hung out on their beautiful patio- still dressed in our yukata. At 8:30pm, the temperature outside was absolutely perfect!

If I get any more photos, I will be sure to share!
Ciao,
~Reb

Yikes Stripes! Obi & obijime arrived today

Whoohoo! I love to get stuff in the mail, especially on a Friday!
I haven't shopped on ebay for over a year (I'm being very good!)...but couldn't resist these two cute accessories, both striped and reasonably priced!

New striped obijime

How cute is this obijime? The red is really a very deep magenta or rubine red. It's a brand new obijime, so the white is crisp and clean. I love that the stripes are vertical rather than lengthwise. It reminds me of the red-and-white stripes you see at Obon on the yagura, on a cart at matsuri, or on the paper lanterns. I don't know the significance of the red and white stripes, but it does look very festive and reminds me of being a kid at the county fair.

New hanhaba obi

This beautiful obi I picked up has a just enough bling to take it out of the everyday hanhaba category. It's actually more elegant than I thought it would be. The fabric is high-quality and has a nice drape. It's woven with three different patterns and is reversible, with pink and blues on one side and yellow and blues on the other. The gold threads soften the whole obi and the colors look frosted and shimmery rather than too loud and shiny. It seems to be a silk blend but it might be all silk. It's so pretty I think I will wear it more with komon kimono rather than yukata unless I want to really doll up a yukata!

I will have to spend some time soon coordinating both of these new items soon and post some photos...a kimono wearing event is coming up at the end of the month. Oh whatever will I wear??

More soon,
~Rebecca