Black, White and Matching

Hello Everyone,

It feels like I was changing my plans every hour this Saturday. First I was supposed to go to London with a friend, but then I remembered that my husband had contact lenses appointment and he needed me there for moral support lol. Then his work changed his schedule two times in two days, so he ended up having to stay up for a whole night to get back into night shift and asked me to cancel his appointment. By the time he told me that, my friend was already gone so I've decided to go to Cambridge instead.

I confess that I've been neglecting my modern kimono lately in favor of vintage sha pieces. This black and white ro komon was a lucky win on eBay a while back, but I just couldn't get around to wearing it. I paired it up with my pain-in-a-butt ro hikinuki obi after watching a video on youtube that finally showed me clearly one of the steps that I was missing. This gave me a perfect reason to wear my straw cloche. I thought it would be cute to wear one black and one white belts as two obijime and kept the obiage also white (not that I have much choice lol). Haneri is faint pink with black flowers to match the pink of my bag and the pink in the obi design.

Finally, for the matchy part. I see Yumi Yamamoto doing it pretty often, and I've always wanted to try matching kimono and tabi. I could actually do it this time because I just so happen to own some black and white striped tabi! I like the effect quite a lot, if only I didn't tie my kimono too short. What can I say, old habits die hard :)

Unfortunately this obi has a yellow fold line which can't be hidden. It's not visible very much in the photos, but it's pretty visible in real life. I am not sure that there is even a way to clean it either, since it's a silk obi.

And yes, I did wear tabi! I think it's maybe the third time this year..? :)

~ Lyuba

Just Arrived #14

Couple of days ago I got another package in the mail and I was blown away by the sheer awesomeness of this kimono. The picture is fairly accurate, except it makes a much bigger impact in person. I've always wanted a striped kimono with faint designs on it, and a while back I was watching one on Shinei's website, but it got sold. Then this one came along and I snapped it up within seconds! I can't wait to wear it, but unfortunately it's awase so it will have to wait.

I'm also trying to expand my haori collection. I only have very few of them as of right now because I don't particularly like haori to begin with, but I've always wanted one of the longer vintage ones. Now I got one!

Have you gotten any goodies in the mail this week? 

~ Lyuba

Poppies and Asanoha

Hello Everyone,

On Saturday my husband and I went to go see a movie, which I took as a perfect opportunity to wear kimono.

I choose my poppies sha komon with orange and white asanoha patterned ro nagoya obi. I had some trouble with accessories because I only have 3 ro obiage, and none of them were the shade I would have ideally liked, so I settled on a white one with multicolored shibori patter. The obijime was a last minute addition. I actually had a different one on, but then I saw the one in the picture and knew it was THE one.

It was a market day, so there were a lot of people around. I was hurrying to the cash machine when I heard someone behind me loudly ask if I was wearing the right geisha shoes with my geisha outfit. I was in a hurry, so I didn't even bother turning around and just said Sure do! Inside I was fuming and wanted to say something not-so-nice along the lines of considering I'm NOT wearing a geisha outfit, I'm damn sure I'm wearing the right shoes for it! But really, people will be ignorant regardless of what I wear or say, I just wish they wouldn't argue so much to prove their point (like insisting that I'm wearing a geisha outfit). It made a fun status update for FB though.

Have you been called geisha lately?

~ Lyuba