English Colour Gallery Text
English Colour Gallery Text
Fukuro obi – formal obi
Furisode – Long sleeved kimono, formal wear for young and unmarried women
Hakama – Trouser skirt
Hakata obi – obi woven in Hakata city
Han haba obi – half width obi
Haori – A cardigan for kimono
Heko obi – A casual obi made with a long piece of cloth
Houmongi – semi-formal kimono
Iromuji – plain coloured kimono
Kanzashi – hair accessories made with small pieces of folded silk
Kazari koshihimo – decorative waist cord
Meisen – a kimono made with B quality silk in the early 20th Century, using new and colourful designs and colours imported from Europe
Nagoya obi – everyday, informal obi
Obi – sash or belt
Obi age – obi scarf
Obi dome – obi brooch
Obi jime – sash cord Eri – collar
Omeshi – an informal kimono made with a thick silk with twisted threads. Popular in the mid to late 20th Century
Oshima – Kimono woven on Oshima island, often dyed and mordanted in mud
Raden – mother-of-pearl weaving
Sukesage – A kimono between a semi-formal and casual kimono
Tabi – kimono socks
Tomesode – crested formal kimono
Yagasuri – Arrow pattern
Yuzen dyeing – Dyeing where painters are painted onto kimono with small brushes
P8. Sparrow Romance
This is an art nouveau style, black Taisho period tomesode. (Crested formal kimono). It was love at first sight for me when I saw the kimono at a flea market, and I noticed the little sparrows’ faces peering through the leaves. I don’t have much chance to wear it formally, so I purposely thought up a non-formal way of wearing it. The obi is patterned in shining silver and gold and the obi jime, obi age and eri are not the usual white, but coloured, and I used the colours found in the kimono, to give it harmony. The obi dome is made from a glass chopstick stand and I chose purple for a kazari koshihimo. The earrings are like dangling diamonds and add to the romantic overall appearance.
P14. Poster Girl
This kimono is a 70 year old, high-quality crepe silk kimono called Tango chirimen, made in Tango, and was used for the promotion of the Tango Silk Weavers Union. With the white, blue and red dyeing, I have used a kazari koshihimo, and combined it with an obi from Tamiya Raden, and a blue obi age from Kobayashi dyeing workshop to give it a very contemporary feel. With a black hat and black and white check bag, matching obi dome, and round sunglasses, this becomes very stylish. This kimono was used for the Tango Silk Weavers’ Union’s 300 year anniversary event poster.
P16. LBD
Kimono and western clothing both have the image of black as being the colour for mourning. But I wanted to make a plain black kimono style that was not for mourning. Since Coco Chanel released her fashionable, not mourning, little black dress in the 1920s, it has become a staple of every woman’s wardrobe. This iromuji, plain kimono, with a design of Edo (kiriko) cut glass in the weave, is Tango chirimen and was made by Shibata Orimono in Tango. Please look at the sleeves. The lining edges are pink, unthinkable on mourning wear. The obi is a brightly coloured Nagoya obi with cherry blossom patterns. The kazari koshihimo really works well on simple, plain kimono. I’ve used an embroidered collar with hearts and arabesques. Just with these items it becomes stylish. I added my turquoise earrings to match the obi colour and complete the look.
P18. Go West
A kimono that is the beautiful blue of the sea. Kobayashi Tomohisa wanted to express the beauty of the sea at Tango through his kimono. Through trial and error in his workshop, he produced this blue which does not easily fade. I used an old obi from Nishijin in Kyoto, lots of colourful accessories and put on my boots for a pop and colourful look.
P20. A shaded Tango
This kimono, belonging to the Tango Silk Weavers’ Union, is 70 years old. I debated how to coordinate it but I really wanted the shading in the dyeing to stand out, so rather than using a typical elaborate woven kimono with lots of gold threads in it, I used a simple and soft plain obi with no pattern on it. The extra collars, obi jime and obi age are matching colours for harmony, to make the kimono stand out more.
P22. 21 Colours
The kimono bolts from Create Ebara, the brand name of Ebara Corporation, who has a workshop and showroom in Tango, are wonderfully lustrous and beautiful weaving. Ebara san made this one for me. He asked me to choose a colour from his samples, but I said that they are all so lovely I couldn’t choose. Then he made this kimono with all the colours in it. It is the only one in the world. The warp threads are black, but there are 21 colours in the weft threads, which meant that making this stylish piece was a lot of hard work. I paired it with a white obi and black sunglasses to get a cool look that I like.
P26. Stylish Linen
This is a lovely cool, bright blue, thin linen kimono for summer. There are lame threads in the weft to make it sparkle a bit. Konken Orimono from Yonezawa made the half width obi and I used dress-making fabric for the collar. These stand out on the plain kimono. With my lace tabi and bag with South American vibes, I’ll look fine going for a walk along the beach.
P28. Early summer: white and iris
I bought this unlined kimono very cheaply in a used kimono store, because the iris pattern attracted me. It was stained and too small for me, difficult for me to use, but my love of the pattern was strong, so I bought it anyway. The obi is a rare, mesh-like weave. The obi jime, and the obi dome, made from a ring, are the colours of the iris in the kimono, green, purple, and yellow.
P32. The Lily and the Gourd
This unlined kimono has a pattern of big, pink lilies. It’s old but the colour combination is attractive. The obi is an old summer ro obi. Half of it is plain, and half is tie-dye. Over the tie-dyeing the embroidery of the gourd and leaves is really beautiful. I added pink collars and tabi to go with it.
P34. Late Summer
I found this kimono at a used kimono sale in Tango. The moon, the dragonfly and the check, the green, blue and orange colours, so many things I love about this art deco kimono. An added bonus was the long sleeves. I used white earrings that look like the moon, navy blue shoes with ribbons, and I remembered that I had an old Hakata obi that would go perfectly with this kimono. It ended up with beautifully harmonized colours.
P36. Peach Nouveau
Attracted by the art nouveau feel of this houmongi, I bought it at a flea market. I like the combination of orange, green and purple. I think the triangle patterned purple obi balances well with the flower designs of the kimono. I made my malachite obi dome from a brooch. The long haori is probably from the early 20th Century and the bead bag is also from that time. My tabi are made from Indonesian batik.
P38. Tonight Tulip
The patterns on this kimono resemble illustrations by Nakahara Junichi. This is a stylish modern tulip pattern on a meisen kimono. It is in poor condition but I like the colours and pattern. The obi is woven with lacquered threads in the same colours as are used in the kimono. It has a black ground so is slimming. The small red hat and dot earrings, give the outfit a punch, and the bag is an old kimono bag made of dyed leather.
P40. With Atom
This kimono came from a friend’s family’s old kimono chest. It is nothing special at first glance, but I thought it could be used very stylishly. The dots on it are made with lacquered and lame threads woven into the weft. I chose an abstract patterned, retro feel obi to go with it. It is bright orange with a touch of blue, the opposite colour. Using this hint, I added a blue obi age, and bag. I would like you to notice the pottery obi dome with the face of Atom on it.
P42. Fish Jump
This is an old tomesode that the colour has faded from. It has a wonderful pattern of big fish jumping in the waves. I paired it with a fukuro obi that has ships on it, to go with the theme. Just for fun, I went to the sea in it. The collar and earrings are blue, and the dots on the bag are like drops of water.
P44. My Name is Adras Ikat
This is a kimono made from Adras ikat which is a traditional craft of Uzbekistan. It looks similar to meisen, but it is marked out by its bright colours and very large repeating patterns. I used an off-white Hakata obi and as a point, I used a thick obi jime in bright pink. My home dyed pink tabi also go perfectly with this. I used a blue bag with dots for a fun pop effect.
P46. Eternal Summer
This is an antique summer tomesode. I fell in love with the bright sea blue turquoise colour. The black obi, with fish woven into it, was really old and weak and this was the last time I could use it. Now it no longer exists, but seeing the fish jumping here brings me happiness. The obi dome is old, with a whale on it. A nice point is picking up the colour of the flowers with my kazari koshihimo.
P48. Yellow Magic
I received this as a kimono bolt, from a friend of a friend. They said they had no way of using it. But I really like the maybe unfashionable but pop feeling of this kimono. It has lots of colours in it, so choosing which colours to pick up in the accessories is really fun. This time I picked an orange obi with huge circles on it, and the sunglasses, earrings and hat are also orange or red. Then I picked up my favourite colour, lime green, and used it in the collar, obi jime, bag and zouri. You can style the kimono in many different ways, by choosing different colours. Note: the handmade obi dome is a clock!
P52. Pearls
Harada Namichi (1901-1980), painted girls wearing kimono with pearls in the early 20th Century. I wanted to try and see if I could really style a kimono with pearls. I made a point of wearing a plain and dark coloured kimono so that the pearls would show up against it. As it is a mix of Japanese and western styling, I also used a hat. The old Hakata obi is the same colour as the kimono, but it has beautiful embroidered flowers on it. I made the obi dome from an old pendant. Beaded bags go well with iromuji kimono. I wanted to make the outfit very feminine, so I used a collar that has embroidery and my unique heels, which are the only pair made with yuzen-dyed fabric from the yuzen dyer Tanabe Keiko.
P54. Almost Spring
This casual omeshi kimono has a design of plum blossoms. This is a spring coordination, but the plum blossoms are woven with black, silver and gold threads giving it a mature look. A beautiful embroidered Japanese nightingale is on the black Nagoya obi. The obi jime has exactly the same colours as the kimono, and the obi age is a piece of fabric which has a black ground and golden spangles on it. The collar is also black with gold threads sparkling in it. Note: The small gold bag is French and I found it in a flea market.
P56. Rococo Fantasy
I was amazed at the gorgeous quality of this kimono when I found it in an antique market. It is like a Jakuchu painting right on a kimono and I thought that I really wanted to make a fantastic outfit with this kimono. (The kimono was painted by Matsueda shinobu.) The obi is an old Nagoya obi with an arabesque pattern. To make it more ornate I put lace around it and added a peacock feather. The collar is tie-dyed and the extra collar is sparkly. I also had sparkles put on my face. My bag is rather unusual, and is made of bird feathers. My Italian shoes are reminiscent of a European court. The most amazing accessory is the rococo style hat, hand-made by Koumayouhinten. Thanks to this hat I was able to achieve the gorgeous styling that I imagined for this kimono.
P62. Kimono Monster
P64. Garden Goddess
The image is of a garden goddess. The yukata is dyed by hand and with tie-dyeing. This concept, styling and make-up was entrusted to the unique designer, AKIRA TIMES, who also designed this book and styled the kimono on p88-89.
P66. Under the Willows: A trip along the Tokaido
This wonderful meisen kimono was left over at a kimono sale. Perhaps people avoid bright colours and patterns. I am the opposite. I am attracted to interesting colours and designs, so I bought it. The pattern is of postcards along the Tokaido Road, and willow trees in the background. I took the photograph on a little red bridge, with a willow tree behind me. A key to the styling is the use of sunglasses which match the kimono.
P69. Arima ni Koi san.
“Arima ni Koi San” is a project started in December 2020, to promote Arima Onsen hot spring resort. I helped the project by doing the styling for a short film they produced. I also went to the home of a young girl who wanted to wear kimono, and helped to make a stylish outfit mixing kimono with some fashionable accessories, using a kimono of her grandmother’s that was lying in a chest at her home.
P70. The water wheel keeps turning
This is a wonderful, rare, yuzen-dyed summer furisode. The instant I saw it, I recognized that I had seen a photograph of almost the same design on a kimono in a book, “Nihon no Josei Fuzoku Shi” (A history of Japanese women’s dress) by Kyoto Shoin. That kimono was from around 1700. My kimono has an arrangement of the same wisteria and water wheel like the original one with very similar positioning. My 100-year-old kimono was a reproduction of a kimono that was 200 years old at that time. Just as fashion recycles older styles, traditional patterns are recycled as if in a time-slip. Such designs continue to be loved across the generations. My hair accessory is made by Momokanzashi, an Italian tsumami kanzashi accessory maker. I love the colour of kingfishers. They are the symbol of my town and can occasionally be seen around my local river.
P74. Meet me at the Temple
This is a classical style of early 20th Century kimono. It has pine, bamboo and plum, the three lucky friends of winter, for celebratory occasions, so I wore it at New Year. The obi is contemporary, but it has a Genji inspired classical design. The colours in the obi are the same as those in the kimono pattern. The embroidered white collar and my zouri are antiques and the obi dome is Kutani pottery from Kanazawa. I didn’t want an old Japanese hair style, but put my hair up with a flower and a kanzashi accessory from Oda Hikozaburo. It’s a suitable outfit to celebrate the New Year.
P76. Arrow Pattern
This kimono has yuzen-dyed plum blossoms, dyed over the traditional arrow pattern. The kimono is a komon (all over repeated design for casual kimono), but it is also a furisode. It is a very unusual kimono. I thought as it is a furisode I should make it really cute. If one says arrow pattern people probably think of fashionable school girls in the early 20thCentury. With that in mind, I paired it with black school-girl type boots. The collar is an antique embroidered one. I used a heko obi design by Rumi Shibasaki of Rumi Rock and finished it off with a fat pink obi jime, like those used by young girls, to give it a cute finish.
P78. Fascinated by the beautiful kimono
This is a beautiful yuzen-dyed furisode of the early 20th Century. The pattern makes you feel like spring with delicate plum blossoms and a flowing stream. I used a fukuro obi with silver and gold threads and a tie-dyed obi age in yellow and rust. The obi jime is lime green. I added both colours in extra collars and the main collar is an embroidered one with plum blossoms. The kanzashi is by Oda Hikosaburo.
P80. Pink
This daring salmon pink houmongi has large red and orange flowers on it. The Nagoya obi has an arabesque pattern. The special points are the blue obi jime and the red shoes. With a giant ribbon or a little crown, this little princess could be up to some mischief!
P82. Ice Cream Scandal!?
This houmongi has a beautifully painted rose pattern in yuzen with no outlines. Using this I made a kind of Marie Antoinette style. The obi has a design of woven florals and the obi dome is my mother’s china brooch, with roses painted on it. My earrings are like diamonds, and I have an elegant pair of heels. This was such fun that I began to play around, eat ice-cream and behave in a manner unseemly for a princess.
P84. Go Go Bicycle
I often wore this rust coloured raw silk kimono to the university where I worked. Here I am on my way to work. I used to have William Morris’s “Golden Lily” curtains in the dining room of my old house. I brought the fabric from England. But when I rebuilt my house the curtains didn’t fit so I couldn’t use them. I really liked the fabric though, so I couldn’t throw it away. Finally, I could use the cloth by making this hakama for cycling.
P86. Banana Times
P88. 60s Replay
I wanted to try and make a 1960s image with kimono. It is quite a strong statement. I made a huge fold in the middle and tucked it inwards instead of outwards, and I put an extra pink collar on the outside, rather than the inside. The colour coordination is the key, so I used an iromuji kimono and I matched the pink collar, obi, and tights. The white bag, obi age and the sunglasses go with my hair. Taking the photograph outside a record shop helps to give it a somewhat nostalgic feel.
P90. The Rabbit’s A Hard Day’s Life
Here I tried putting on a soft skirt under my kimono to challenge wearing them together. The kimono has a flowered pattern and the collar has an embroidered rabbit. The obi is a girl’s 7,5,3 celebration obi. The green makes it colourful and bright.
P92. Attracted by the southern wind
I don’t have many raw silk kimono, but good quality ones are nice for casual wear. It’s not easy to find a pattern I like, so I remember how excited I was when I found this one. With not too much ikat patterning, you can really enjoy the rich brown colour of the Oshima raw silk. I have paired it with an Indian cotton batik obi, and an Indonesian bag which I received from a friend. The dress fabric collar has the same check pattern as the kimono. I topped it off with a hat. It is a cool outfit that can be worn anytime.
P94. Edo Colours
This sukesage kimono has a hexagon design. (symbolizing turtles). It is in colours popular in the Tokyo area. I wanted to make this elegant. I bought this obi on the net, and later found out that it is a very high-quality obi and the weaver is living national treasure, Kitagawa Hyoji. I had no idea and I’m guessing that the seller had no idea, so it was a very reasonable price. The colours are perfect for this kimono and the weave is unusual. The shape of my little French bag from a flea market goes perfectly with the hexagons. Using a white collar and white tabi would make it too formal, so I purposely added colour and of course, some dangly earrings.
P96. Brown Records: Gedup!
I had a go at designing a tie-dyed kimono which was a collaboration with Fuji Koubo in Kyoto. When I decided to make a kimono, I wondered what pattern was best for tie-dye, and I came up with the idea of a record. Now, music is really important to young people and records are popular again. The obi is half width with music and a keyboard woven in. The collar also has musical instruments on it. I put a real record on my hair, and the earrings are record shapes, too!
P98. Café Time
If a kimono is a bit dull, you can brighten it up with the obi and accessories. This cotton Nagoya obi was made by a student at Oda Kimono Professional School. With a rose pattern on it, I used an obi dome with roses on it, made from a brooch. With a beret and plaits I think it has a retro look. The tabi are made from Indonesian batik, and individually ordered.
P100. A Cotton Pin-Stripe
This is Kawagoe Touzan, a cotton characterized by fine stripes. In the middle-ages Touzan, a fine striped cotton fabric, was originally imported from India. The people of Edo fell in love with it because it was so fine and soft like silk. Japanese cotton had short threads and was much coarser. When Japan opened its doors to international trade in the late 19th Century, the fabric merchants from Kawagoe went to Yokohama to buy fine, factory-made thread from England. They made Kawagoe Touzan from this thread and it became very popular among the people of Edo. The cotton is soft and comfortable to wear. I matched the leaf pattern of the obi with my earrings, and carried a business bag. The kimono is casual, but its also smart, isn’t it?
P102. Stripes Going Out
This omeshi stripe has a white ground and is a stylish casual kimono. It came from my friend’s ancestors. On the simple stripe I put a Suzani shishuu embroidered obi. The threads are dyed with plant dyes and the pattern is of pomegranates It is one of the wonderful handcrafts of Uzbekistan. The collar is a William Morris design woven by a Shibata Orimono in Tango. The bead bag is an important part of the kimono outfit.
P106. Teddy Bear Love
I made this cute outfit to go with the teddy bear hats made by the hat designer Koumayouhinten. I put a lace collar on the outside of a light blue and pink komon kimono. The skirt image is created by the hakama. The cotton half width obi has a design of paper dolls on it. Long hair with plaits and sparkles on my face balance with the decorative hats.
P110. Magnolia Girl
I love magnolias. This time I wanted to make a western style look but using kimono. I took the colours from the lines around the petals on the kimono, red, yellow and green, and I wore a red hat. The red scarf is made by Shimazu Sumiko from Tango. I used a yellow bag from Strathberry, and yellow tights and shoes. I wore my kimono short with a white lace skirt underneath. I also wore white gloves. The soft obi is plain rust and yellow, and I can wrap it like a scarf and show both sides. I tied it onto a small ribbon. It is a soft and feminine look.
P114. UK. Fest!!
The kimono has a cream base and then large and small polka dots in red and navy blue, the colours of the Union Jack. (UK flag). The obi, by Modern Antenna, also has a Union Jack. For the collar I used cotton dress fabric which has the design of Alice’s tea party on it. I wore this UK outfit when I was on the TV program “Tetsuko no Heya”, (Tetsuko’s Room).
P116. Sheila Cliffe, Way to Go!
Omeshi kimono were popular in the post-war period and at that time abstract and geometric patterns were popular. The influence of Nakahara Junichi was strong. At first glance it may look like an uninteresting kimono, but I believe such kimono have a big impact when styled well. The kimono has red, black and white and I have added green as a contrast in the obi. The obi also has an abstract rather than seasonal design. The bag is from the UK brand, Strathberry, which I really like. It has some pretty fern like plants embroidered on it. The obi age is black cloth with sparkles and the collar and hair accessory are black. I was aiming for a cool look.
P120. Ichimatsu Candy
The check pattern has been popular since the Edo period, and cream and caramel colours make you think of sweet flavours. The design has no specific age or season, so it’s a very useful kimono. The obi is made from an old crepe silk kimono with cute dyed and embroidered flowers. The total image is of pastel colours, but I matched the deep pink of the flower in the centre of the obi with a kazari koshihimo. The lace gloves and straw hat give a girly look to the outfit.
P122. Go for it!
I saw this dynamic black flower and red abstract komon at a kimono event where I was on the staff. It is really cute so I recommended it to many people, but it was left over at the end, so I bought it. Please look carefully at the modern Hakata obi, a heko obi by Kuroki Orimono. The pattern is of huge bees. My collar is black tie-dye and I added big black earrings and hair ties on my white hair. It makes a good contrast. The black hat with a skunk cabbage, a black and red bag and red gloves complete the outfit. As I thought, the kimono is really cool!
P124. Blue Christmas
I found this Kaga yuzen kimono in an antique shop. The snow falling over the camellias and what a surprise! There is a small snowman hiding in the lining. This is Japanese chirarism. As it is Kaga yuzen, the price was high, but it was so sweet that I bought it anyway. I reasoned with myself that it would be a lovely kimono to wear at Christmas. There are snowflake patterns on my white obi and on my obi dome. My hat, scarf, gloves and shoes are the opposite colour, red. This immediately brings a warm and happy Christmas image.
P126. A gift from Majorca Island
Majorca omeshi was popular at the beginning of the 60s. It was inspired by the bright colours of pottery and shining tiles made in Majorca. The image is made more interesting with the red heko obi from Rumi Rock, the red gloves and silver tabi boots. It’s a new kind of stylish everyday wear. “You like gardening”, I said to the hair and make-up artist, as she made a beautiful flower garden on my head. With a few spiky branches, the hairstyle is as impressive as the kimono.
This is a white omeshi, popular after the war. I picked up the yellow and pink of the squares in the collar. The boots were from a used clothing store. The obi has the same yellow and pink and has a cute paper doll pattern. I tried throwing the Majorca omeshi over the top for a cool look.
P130. Cool Mode
This is just a very ordinary abstract patterned black komon. I thought I wanted to make it look like the cover of Vogue. The important item is Rumi Rock’s black and gold heko obi. It suddenly makes the outfit gorgeous. This obi dome is another brooch that I have converted. You can make an obidome with any small thing that you like. Please try it. My earrings are art deco glass. The collar has silver dots on it, and is from kimono designer Jotaro Saito. The black leather shoes are sharp, and the sunglasses are really important. They always make you look cool. Do you think it will make Vogue?