Kimono Photos Fundraiser for APAH

Some of you might remember that last year I did a last minute mini kimono fashion show at Asian-Pacific Appreciation festival on base. This year I was set on participating and making it bigger and better.

But this year we also got our funding cut completely... so get this, whoever (not sure who, but someone who funds all these events) on base promised us $500 at the beginning of the year, which is nearly not enough but better than nothing, and then about a month ago we were told that we'll be getting NO money at all. ..... ..... ..... And all is good and fine, we really don't have to do anything super big for APAH, and without any money we could have just put some stuff on website and ran a powerpoint on computers, but as one of our organizers said we are more proud of our heritage than that. Plus last year the event was a huge success, and I bet people on base are secretly or non-so-secretly hoping for a repeat so we decided to try and make it as best we can with as much as we got.

So we decided to hold several fundraisers, and the first one was with kimono! We got a booth type deal at one of our local mini malls, but unfortunately we couldn't get a spot at the busy one... so I was pretty skeptical about the success. The busy mall has all the teenagers and dorm kids that could just walk to it, vs the other one that people have to drive to. I also thought that it would have been great to have some kids kimono stuff since it seems like everyone on base have kids, but I don't have any kids.... so I don't have any kids stuff.

Well, it turned out to be worse than I secretly hoped for, but better than I was expecting. We got $130 in 5 hours (it was $140 but I took $10 to cover printer paper and ink I bought) through dressing and people randomly donating money to APAH. We actually were/are not allowed to put any kind of donation boxes because there is some kind of super huge Air Force wide fundraiser going on right now, so all donation boxes go to them or something along those lines. People who were randomly donating were people with little kids who really wanted a photo, but couldn't get it. I even had a Japanese lady with a 3y.o. girl ask about Shichi-Go-San, and I almost with tears in my eyes had to tell her I have nothing. The lady had to cancel her trip to Japan this year because of everything that's going on in Japan, and so her girl wouldn't be getting dressed up in pretty kimono. Oh how I wanted to raid Lily's kimono closet at the time (Yup, your Lily Naomi, cuz I know she probably has a collection almost as big as yours now)

Here is my booth. I didn't take more photos, but right in front there is a big table with photo examples book, laptop and printer stuff on it, and to the right is where we hung the white sheets for photos. I brought all my biggest synthetic komon because in my photo book I had photos of them, but I shouldn't have bothered lol. Of course no one wanted photos in them, but I felt like if had photos of them... I might as well have them on offer too just in case. Because we all know if I didn't bring them, somebody would have asked I also borrowed Hong's purple synthetic furisode, and her vintage wedding kimono (the one hanging) for decoration.

I know that these photos will seem repetitive because I only used 2 furisode and 2 obi, but I tried to make them look different by using different obiage/obijime. And I think it works I mean I think all of those different obiage/obijime work, so for those of you looking for color combos, take note!

Oh, and I dressed a lot of young girls, maybe younger than 13? I didn't ask, but that's why we love kimono! I could fit them on full grown adult women and for young girls! LOL for some of them kimono were way too long, but I reassured them that it will not show in pictures And while dressing I was explaining how tucks are added to kimono for younger ladies I hope I've made them feel as pretty as they looked.

My first customers.

In case you wonder, numbers were for people who wanted their photo emailed. This way I know who is who.

 This is what happens when I watch too much Gokusen the day before :) Guys in Gokusen wear kimono as loosely as this.

This is my favorite photo With little girls I just pretended like they were little maiko, and tried to make obi as long as possible in the back. Good thing they were so tiny, I had lots of obi left over  

I'm happy because I got a lot of photo examples for my book! :) Plus I've had a lot of fun, and got to dress lots of guys in kimono :) And then make them pose for photos MWAHAHAHAHA!

~ Lyuba

P.S. Who would have thought that copying post from IG will copy emoticons too? :)