Team Fabulous!

On Saturday Hong and I went to London EXPO.

I haven't had the greatest past few days, so I don't feel like talking about my coordination and why I chose what. Instead, I'll just show you the photos.

Lyuba in Akira style

Yesterday I wrote about our KDJ event at Carnaby Street, but I didn't include too many photos of Akira style. The reason is because Akira Times is so fabulous, that these photos deserve their very own post! 

As many of you might know, I was inspired by someone in Spain who dressed in Akira style. Once I've seen the photo, I wanted to do the same thing, without caring that I am a woman... haha :) Akira wears all kinds of hats, but most often he can be seen in a bowler type hat, so I started looking on ebay for something similar. I came across this bright pink straw hat, which gave me an idea to do the whole outfit around color pink. 

 I used my handmade hanhaba obi as a kaku obi. Since I can't really tie kaku obi well I just went with an easy bow in the back. Unfortunately, the damn bow sat at a very uncomfortable place, so it made the drive in the car and then the ride on the tube fairly uncomfortable for me. But lesson learned, if I ever do men kitsuke style again, don't tie a bow and learn some of the flat obi knots! To add some decoration to obi I used one of my obijime. Actually, it was the one laying around from the last time I wore kimono, but it match, so all was good. Few days before I got a care package from my friends and in it I got a two cherries keychain. I attached it to the obijime, and then jingled for the whole trip since the keychain also has a small bell.

One of my friends remarked that she thought I had a small pudge going, but was too polite to remark on it HAHA. She said that after I remarked about how I was very proud of my padding skills, which created a nice belly effect :D. I strapped my breasts as usual, and then added one extra datejime to my waist versus two that I normally use.

It didn't feel THAT weird wearing kimono in men's style, at least not as weird as I was expecting. I still felt very strapped down, but that was because of all the binding and padding I used. At the same time, it was easier to move, and aside from the uncomfortable bow in the back, it was very nice not to worry about collars (since they are loose anyway). I kept thinking that my collar was open too much, but then I remember the casual men's style, and was able to relax.

Here is how I looked without the beard and hat. As Diane said, I still managed to look very girly, which honestly was the look I was going for anyway. I wanted to create a very "romantic" Akira style, for laughs, but once the beard and hat were off, I was left with MY style. After goofing off with the beard, I simply couldn't take non-silly photos even in my "normal" kimono. So here you go, more goofy photos of me :).

Kimono de Jack at Carnaby Street, London

Yesterday I went to London for our first KDJ of the year. This time the theme was Akira style, chocolate and tea rooms.

I left the house at 9:30 am and this is when the whole trip started to get downhill. When got to Epping tube station, I found out that part of the Central line was closed so I had to take a replacement bus service. I had to do it once before, and I absolutely hate bus replacement services! Of course, I could have just looked up to see if there were engineering works before leaving my house, but since I know where I was going, I didn't even think of doing that. Then, once I got to the tube station again, I ended up waiting for around 20 minutes on the tube just to move, because of the broken train. After that it was a very slooooooooow journey to my destination, with 3-5 minutes waiting at each station. So yeah... I was pretty much an hour late to the event that I myself organized lol.

Once I got to Carnaby Street all was well again, since the annoying tube was behind me, and all my friends were already waiting for me. I hit up Choccywoccydoodah first to see if they were still there by any chance, but they had already left, so I went to Camellia's Tea House where I've made an afternoon tea reservation.

When I arrived at Camellia's, no one was there yet! Turned out they made a detour to Liberty's haberdashery department, so I just walked around and looked at all the various teas that Camellia's had to offer.

We got to try the greatest chocolate tea ever! I'm not a fan of black tea at all, but this one was NICE! I think  most of us bought that tea before leaving too :) I know I will be requesting that particular tea in care packages after I leave UK (in exchange for American goodies of course!)

After we were full of tea, scones and cakes, we went back to Choccywoccydoodah area to take more photos. This is where some serious hilarity ensured, because I pulled out my Akira style beard and started posing for photos. I can't tell you how many people were stopping to look, laugh with us, and just be entertained in general. I could even see chocolate shop employees looking at us though the window, so I made sure to wink at especially cute guy ;P Don't worry, I had my beard off by then haha!

I had a blast and this KDJ was exactly what I needed! The great time IN London definitely made up for the not-so-great time spent getting there and back. I will definitely be going back to Camellia's to buy more tea too!

~ Lyuba

Kimono de Jack UK takes over Harry Potter studio

Sometimes it's hard to believe that Kimono de Jack UK has been going on for over three years now. I know I have a hard time believing and it seems that just yesterday I've read about it on Ichiroya's newsletter and decided that UK should have one too. I'm also pretty sure I've said the same thing last year, during out second year anniversary.

This year's anniversary is extra special to me for another reason. Next year at this time, I won't be in UK any more and probably will never get to attend another anniversary meet up, unless I make a special trip back. Because of that, we wanted to do something mega epically awesome to commemorate my last year in the UK, and so we decided to go to Harry Potter Studio Tour dressed in kimono.

Before selecting which kimono to wear most of us went on Pottermore and got sorted into the houses. Hong and I got Ravenclaw, April go Griffindor and I think Isla and Kornelia ended up in Slytherin. I don't remember if the rest got sorted to, or if they just wore whichever kimono :) Since the colors of Ravenclaw are blue and bronze, I tried to get as close to that as possible. I don't actually own any obi that are bronze, but I do have one that's silver. In the movies Ravenclaw is blue and silver, so I figured that would work too. I also have tabi with owls on them, so I thought it was most appropriate to wear them to the studio.

Kimono de Jack UK Orian Showdown at Hyper Japan Christmas 2012

Photo by Stefan Dahl

I finally was able to go to Hyper Japan again! I missed the spring one because of some engineering works on the Central line which would have put me at 3 hours one way journey, so I was going to do my best to not miss this one.

The theme for our Kimono de Jack meet up was Oiran Showdown, where each one of us dressed up as our interpretation of oiran from Sakuran. I've been dying to wear this orange dance hikizuri that Hong has, so I used this opportunity to beg her to let me borrow it :) At first I was going to do something with my hair, like make some oiran-style hair bows, but at the end I didn't want to bother with it all and decided to go with my normal hair. Instead, I've also borrowed a kitsune mask from Hong and used it as my hair accessory.

Photo by April

Photo by Stefan Dahl

Photo by April.