Last week I had some great opportunities to wear this cute kimono Poncho, made and designed by my dear friend Yukiko Tanaka. I had the day off on monday so it was very nice to wear this poncho on some jeans. I was going to Amsterdam for a little visit to Tozai and ‘t japanse winkeltje (you can see these photo’s at the pottom of this post)
Yukiko’s kimono ponchos are so comfortable. And you can wear them on regular clothing and on top of a kimono! The one I am wearing is a soft bingata silk version that is extra large for european woman like myself. Like regular kimono’s these ponchos are made from bolts of kimono fabric. These bolts come in some width varieties from 36 up to 38 cm. For Japanese people this wide is enought but for european people it could be a bit short. So Yukiko designed this poncho with and extra bolt section at the end of both the sleeves. These sleeves measure 75.8cm (*^-^*)/
And this weekend I had some time to put on a kimono. I choose to wear one of my favorite sets, a pale green tsukesage with tachibana and a lovely fukuro obi. This obi is very dear to me. It’s a gift that I received last year from Yukiko’s mother (such a very kind lady).
Because Tachibana is a spring and summer pattern, I wanted to wait to wear it but I couldn’t wait any longer. Although it’s still winter here in Holland I paired this kimono with the poncho again and a scarf (nice comfy and warm).
You probably will not see it, but this kimono is so stained and discolored. Actually he is not wearable anymore. But I think it’s a shame, because it such a cute kimono.
I also wanted to show you a beautiful photo of Yukiko. She is wearing a lovely blue poncho on her kimono for Hatsumōde. Hatsumōde is the first shrine visit of the New Year in Japan. On this day wishes are made for the new year.
Thank you very much for reading (*^-^*)/
Please check out Yukiko Tanaka’s Kimono ponchos pages
Kimono poncho website
Kimono poncho Facebook page
Kimono poncho blog
December and January have been so busy (=.=) holidays, work, planning my trip to Japan and my 29th birthday last week. I really need to get used to the number, but that is a problem I have each year, because I so don’t feel my age, I’m such a big kid at heart ( I like anime and play a lot of games and mmo’s, etc). I was thinking about what kind of party I would like, and I thought it was great idea for a little kimono party. Tulay, Amy, Stephanie, Nicoletta and Charissa came over and we had a great day with kitsuke, birthday presents, chatter, yummy food and of course photo’s.
It was great that Nicoletta was able to wear her first kimono for the first time. She bought the black houmongi a year ago. Tulay was wearing her bright pink kiku houmongi. It’s a lovely bold kimono and it suits her so good! Stephanie was wearing a green ko-furisode that I sold to her last year. The lime green colour looks so good on her (*^-^*) Amy also wore a ko-furisode. Its one of her favorites. Charissa brought her new polka dot komon that she bought a little while back on Rakuten. It was so cute and perfect. Now I also want to keep my eye out for a polka dot komon.
I choose to wear my snow with plumblossom komon and pine fukuro obi. The size is almost perfect for me although the sleeves could be like 5 or 8 cm longer for me, but I must not complain (^.^) and it was great for the season!
I wish we had a group photo’s. But we had no one to make one for us (uhm well the guys were to busy playing Star Wars the Old republic. Guess we can’t blame them because we all love the game)
Tulay and Ralf gave me these super cute Tsuruta Ichiro handkerchief’s. I totally love them (*^-^*) Everyone thank you very much for a wonderfull day! Lets do this again soon.
There are not much opportunity to wear a furisode. Technically I’m to old for them (I’m almost 29) But I wanted to wear one for fun ones again. So I thought it would be a nice idea to wear one during the Coming of Age Day (Seijin no Hi).
This is a Japanese holiday held annually on the second Monday of January (tomorrow ^^). It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have reached the age of majority (20 years old) over the past year.
I haven’t done that much kitsuke lately (so busy =.=) so I was happy I was able to do this one. I hope you like it (*^-^*)/
I bought this incomplete tsuke obi awhile ago. I loved the pattern so much. I found it a bit sad that this obi was not complete, all alone and could never be worn. So I bought it and made it into a little bag. And yesterday I figured it was the perfect cover for my Ipad ♥
I thought it was time to make some new hanao for these old geta’s. I made these with the little pieces of the end of a cotton scarf. It’s a dark brown polka dot fabric with some torchon lace. The lace was already fixed on the end of the scarf so it was perfect for this hanao.
You can make them from scratch, with rope and fabric and some padding. Or you can sew some new fabric around a already existing hanao, like I did with this one.
Most of you are probably familiar with Nyan cat (#^-^#) The silly cookie cat with a rainbow behind him.
Muhvi (from immortal geisha) and I got this idea for a Obiage Nyan Cat after talking about one of her photo’s filled with obiage on Flickr (#^-^#)/ And this is the result hahaha My little cat Nicky with a Nyan rainbow of obiage. Isn’t she cute? (atm I have 11 Obiages)!
