I did wear kimono in May!

Hello Everyone,

I've been pretty silent on this blog because I've been pretty busy with various events. I did wear kimono though and here are some photos as proof!

First Hong and I went to the Golden Festival organized by the Cambridge Anglo Japanese Society at The Cambridge Union. I did a kimono talk there, and also sold some of my kimono.

Us, being extra fabulous selves. 

This guy was walking around, and we couldn't pass up an opportunity to dress him in kimono.

I wore my only sha kimono with my super adorable ro obi, which I never had an opportunity to wear until this moment.

We also participated in the Yozakura Party fashion show, which you can see here. I filmed the whole thing while Hong worked backstage making sure everything was nice and smooth going. I can't tell you how happy I was that she stayed and helped me, because saying it was CRAZY would be an understatement. THANK YOU HONG! Unfortunately I didn't realize that everyone will come out at the last minute, and took off the camera off the tripod. The second video is me filming while holding the camera. Had it stayed on the tripod, I could have just pressed the filming button and ran out there with everyone. Oh well :(

Kimono starts at around 4min mark. Logan (the guy in the green kimono), was EPIC! Hong and I are trying to get him to be our model now :) :) :)



Next we also went to the Camcon on May 12, where we were the dealers again and where I did a talk on kimono. I wore one of my favorite striped kimono with my newest obi. I call it Space Apple obi! I don't have any pictures of the back, but trust me when I say that the design looks like a space apple! :)

We saw several artists doing manga portraits, so we requested ours to be done too. The one on the right was done first, but we took one look at it and said it was too nice! So we requested an "evil" portrait too. :) I love them both and will frame them! I also asked one of the artists to decorate my Moo card box, and when Hong saw it she had to ask for her box to be decorated too!

Let me know what you think!

~ Lyuba

Kimono Challenge #13: My Special Kimono Memory

Hello Everyone, 


Finally I am at the end of this kimono challenge. Today's topic is one that I've added myself to the original challenge, because I believe that everyone has a special kimono memory. My special kimono memory is meeting Yumi Yamamoto at the Japanese Art Festival in 2010, and since I've never wrote about it on my blog, it's time to fix that. 

I don't have a good relationship with the Japanese Art Festival, because from the one time I went there it was a big waste of time and money. When I hear Japanese Art Festival, I expect at least some degree of traditional arts... Instead, most of it was Anime, anime, and more anime. Although every time there is a kimono fashion show, you have to survive hours of anime, anime, and anime before that. Needless to say, I never actually seen the fashion show during my first trip there, and I'm pretty sure I spent the grand total of 5 minutes walking around the place before bolting for a Japanese restaurant for lunch. This time, it was different because Akemi managed to get a kimono designer, Yumi Yamamoto, to attend! I was still not convinced that I would go, but then April told me that Akemi sent out a call for models for the fashion show, and the models were to wear Yumi's kimono. I was so in! 


I exchanged several "fun" emails with Akemi, trying to figure out what time to show up and what to bring, and finally I was set to go with several bags packed full of kimono items. When I got there, it turned out that I didn't even need all of those stuff, because Yumi was going to provide everything for her models. At the end, I was still glad that I lugged all the stuff, since the other models ended up using everything. 

Yumi dressed her models in kimono, and we set out to figure out how to walk and pose, which was a lot of "fun", considering I don't speak a word of Japanese and Yumi's English is not that great. But somehow we managed to understand each other (I'm telling you, kimono has a universal language build into it!), most likely after I pretty much took over and told the models what I THOUGHT Yumi wanted. She didn't argue, so either I was right, or she couldn't say otherwise ;P.

Yumi Yamamoto at Japanese Art Festival

I ended up going to the Japanese Art Festival, even if I had my doubts about it. But couple days ago April told me that Akemi Solloway sent her an email looking for non-Asian kimono models. Me being myself, I jumped in at the idea especially because there was a pretty good chance I would be wearing one of Yumi Yamamoto kimono :)

Sadly I was almost 30 mins late :( I left on time, but halfway to Eppings I remembered that I only have 1£ on me in coins, and I didn't remember how much they charge for parking. So I had to stop and get change, and that took up time that I could have used on being super hot and uncomfortable in the tube lol. Then when I finally got to Holborn, I had no idea where to go! Thankfully I was able to ask directions from people who were giving out festival's fliers, but even with those 'directions' I was wondering if I was going in the right direction lol. When I finally got there, everyone were still there...not sure if they were waiting for me, or just sitting around for nothing?

The day before the festival, Akemi told me that I should bring kimono undergarments, tabi and zori. I brought 4 pairs of zori, 3 pairs of tabi, obiita, korin belt and the butt padding thing because I was being me and bringing stuff just in case. Turned out I didn't need any tabi or zori for myself as Yamamoto-san had her own for me. I am glad that I brought all the extra stuff, because she ended up using it all on me :) And as a result, if I may say so myself, my obi looked all nice and non-wrinkled :) :) :) ;P

I was also told that I will be wearing a pink kimono, but I ended up with blue one. Can't say I was complaining! I liked blue kimono much more than I liked the pink one, but my favorite one was the black and lace one :) :) My kimono was done with 'cutting embroidery'? Not sure what's the technical term for it, but I bet it took a VERY LONG time to cut out and then embroider all those little holes, and make it look like flowers. I especially loved the zori. You know when you look at the kimono designers' websites, and see their zori.... but you can't order them cuz 1. they are super expensive, and 2. they don't ship overseas. Well I felt like that except I was able to wear them! And I must say they are as cute as they are comfy, or as comfy as they are cute ;) There is just something about modern zori that just draws me to them. :)



Yumi Yamamoto also had a small booth with her stuff, but sadly it was all Japanese priced. She had some rain zori that I just LOVED, but I couldn't afford £170 zori :( :( Instead I settled on her book, which came with a kimono pattern and illustrated instructions. She also signed it for me :) So overall my shopping was pretty successful... other than out-of-my-price-range stuff of course. :)


Overall the festival was.... actually have no idea. It seemed better than the one in February, and there was food (cuz I could smell it haha), and more stuff to do. But I spent my whole time either backstage, or taking photos so I'm not sure. :) I did however had a LOT OF FUN! I'm really glad I went there, especially because I got to meet a real kimono designer and wear kimono 'couture'.

Asican Pacific Appreciation Festival

Our little (or maybe it's big) base doesn't get a lot of Japanese, or even Asian, related events but May is Asian Pacific appreciation month, so at least in May we get something. And this year I got an opportunity to participate in their fashion show too :) It was sort of a short notice, I think from the time I found out about it till it actually happened, only 1.5 weeks passed. I volunteered to dress up 5 people, which I thought would be reasonable enough to do in 2 hours. And up till the day before I thought I will have no volunteers, since no one replied to my and organizers emails. The day before I found out that I will actually have 2 volunteers, but because it was even shorted notice I decided to go simple with their outfits.

The first volunteer wore my pink/purple hitoe komon with my brand new dark purple obi. Sadly I don't have any shots of the back of the obi, because then you would be able to see that the design on obi sort of mirrors the design on kimono :) I didn't bother with proper tabi, since I wasn't sure about her shoe size so I just went ahead and gave her my stretch tabi. At least those are one size fit all lol. The kimono looked like it was made for her! And the color was very good for her too :) That dark purple obi made the whole outfit a lot more mature than I expected. Considering that I literally put it together 30 minutes before I had to leave, I didn't know what to expect.

My other volunteer was a 13 year old girl. Her mom emailed me saying that her daughter would love to model a kimono. I got the email a day before, so I really didn't want to bother with digging out my kimono and juban. Instead I went an extra super easy route of..... yukata! Plus 13 year old is still a kid, and I really didn't want to trust my kimono to a kid I never met. After all yukata are washable lol. Good thing too, because right after I put it on her, she disappeared to hang out with her friends and we had to look for her later. But since she was wearing a yukata and not a full kimono getup, I wasn't a least bit concerned.

Originally I was thinking of wearing this outfit to London EXPO, but changed my mind at the last minute. The hat I have one was specifically bought for this outfit too, I thought it would fit with it nicely :) I got a lot of compliments, and even made a new Japanese friend.



I don't have any photos of me alone! GASP! Looks like I'll have to wear that outfit again soon and took more photos :)