Kimono Advent Calendar Day 2

Hello Everyone,

For the 2nd day I decided to go all out in PURPLE and UME! I love ume! Purple is not one of my go to colors, normally, but somehow I accumulated quite a large collection of purple items. And no, I'm not willing to give them up! I'm very pleased with this coordination and definitely going to wear it sometime in February.

I'm also pretty excited about my new felt boater hat.

Lyuba

Kimono Advent Calendar Day 1

Hello Everyone,

My friend Hong came up with the idea of doing Kimono Advent Calendar (except that she is SLACKING!), so here is my first entry.

The kimono is vintage komon, I haven't actually wore it out yet. I got the kitty paw obi as a gift from Hong a while back, and it remains one of my favorite obi. The haneri was made fairly recently and you can see how I did it in my most recent issue of Western Girl Kimono Style online magazine. For some reason some people can't open the file, my home computer included, so I apologize in advance for that. I don't know why some people have no problems and others can't load anything.

I am pretty happy with this coordination and I definitely will wear it out one day!

~ Lyuba

Since my last post...

Wow I haven't updated in a long while! I did, however, update my FB photo album, so you can check out my most recent coordinations. Sadly, I didn't get to wear kimono as often as I would have like to, but that kind of comes with the whole moving-across-the-world-and-getting-used-to-the-new-area thing. Last time it took me almost 2 years to get back into regular kimono-ing, so I'm hoping that this time it won't take me as long. Of course working a graveyard shift (nights) also doesn't help, as I'm asleep during the best daylight hours.

Anyways, here are some photos that I took but didn't post here.

We had another snow back in February in Clovis. It wasn't as much as back in November, but it was still fun to run out and take some photos. I even borrowed a dog specifically for this reason!

 I had a lot of fun styling this outfit. I tried something different with my hair, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Of course my husband had to help me with one side, but at least he was willing to do it! And did a great job at it too!

For anyone interested, the hat is my newest purchase at the local antique store, and the mustache belt is a separate belt from the obi! They just blend it so well that it seems like I have a mustache pattern on my obi.

Let me know if the comments if you had to take a break from your kimono-ing lately!

Lyuba

My first snow in the USA

When I found out that we will be moving to New Mexico, I absolutely did not expect to see more snow than I did in England. Yup, that's right! We got snow this weekend! It probably will be gone in a week and we will see no more, but still!

Of course I had to use this opportunity to take photos in the snow. I wanted to wear something very bright, so I found my much-neglected red komon (but it looks like iromuji from far away) and paired it up with one of my recent purchases. I've been looking for an excuse to wear this chuya obi for a while now, and I thought it would stand out nicely against the red. Unfortunately I don't really have anything else blue in the right seasonality, or even close to it, so I went with the next best thing - this purplish haori. I also thought of wearing one of my blue hats, but I just really wanted to wear this red beret.

The haori has some mint leaves designs on it, so I figured that would be the color of my accessories. The gloves are very close in shade to the green on the haori, but the obiage is not the same shade. It is actually a light blue, but it looks very similar in the photos. I figured that might happen, as the same thing happened in my photos before.

At one point I slipped and almost fell in the snow.

One thing I wish I would have done differently is wear a different lipstick. I thought I would wear some pink for a change, but in the photos it looks like I have no lipstick whatsoever. I know it's a little thing, but little things like that are the ones that literally make or break a photo.

As always, you can see the rest of the photos in my Facebook album.

~ Lyuba

Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX

Hello Everyone,

Last week I went to a whole day event called Fandango. It is organized by one of the local photographers I've met earlier in September, and I was invited to go as one of the models. I brought several outfits with me, so it felt like I was traveling with my whole closet lol! Of course one of those outfits had to be kimono.

I woke up very early in order to be ready for 4:30 am leaving time, put the kimono on and proceeded to go to the first location. Our first photo shoot place, and the only place I've worn kimono that day, was Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. From the road the place looks pretty unimpressive, but when you get closer to it, the whole funky potential opens up.

I was very happy I put on the kimono at home! During the ride there my obi fell apart, so I had to fix it on location and boy was it COLD! I could barely feel my fingers, so it took me 3 tries to put the obi back on. After a while I've managed, put on the rest of the accessories and went to take photos.

Photo by Kathy Duncan

The day before I've actually coordinated 3 different kimono outfits, because I was hoping to dress up another model in one of them and also have a change for myself. The cold weather made me change my mind about changing kimono, since it would have taken so long to change. I am pretty happy with the outfit I picked out though, and I still have 2 other outfits to use for something else.

Photo by Amy Jo Fish Flores

Photo by Amy Jo Fish Flores

Photo by Amy Jo Fish Flores

Photo by Kathy Duncan

Photo by Carol Davis

Photo by Tom Heisey

Overall I'm very happy with the photos! I want to thank all of the photographers that photographed me. I simply love your photos!

Have you been to the Cadillac Ranch?

~ Lyuba

Photo shoot with Wayne Hall

Hello Everyone,

Back at the end of July I was contacted by one of the photographers on Model Mayhem, Wayne Hall, who asked me if I would be interested in a TF shoot with him. We decided on a date, and went to the Oasis State Park in Portales. The place was really cool, with lots of wild sunflowers blooming everywhere. Until this point, I've never seen wild sunflowers, and they are really cool!

The day was super hot, so I opted for wearing my sha kimono with ro obi I got from Hong in a trade. I also wore my new straw hat I got in one of the vintage shops here, and the boots from Irregular Choice. All in all, we were able to last about 2 - 2.5 hours there, because it just got so HOT at 11am that I couldn't pose anymore without looking like a tomato.

I'm extremely happy with the photos! Thank you, Wayne Hall, for working with me on this photo shoot!

~ Lyuba

Stonehenge - my last time wearing kimono in the UK

On July 22 we will be leaving UK for good. It's finally starting to hit me (because this move is turning out such a pain in a butt that I'm ready to pull my hair out) that in less than a week I will be living in the USA once again. Goodbye frequent trips to London, Europe and my UK friends. From now on, it will be lots of Facebook chatting and once again following each other on the internet.

One of the things I absolutely wanted to do before leaving England was to visit the Stonehenge, but as usual, I just never got around to doing it. Finally, I said to myself that I'm doing it and booked a trip there on July 4th. We were supposed to get there right at sunrise, but with the "great" British weather we had that day, we didn't even see the sun until much later in the day! Either way, I got to see the Stonehenge and walk around inside the circle.

When I was picking out a kimono to wear, I knew that I wanted something that would match my cowboy hat. That hat had traveled with me to Ukraine couple of weeks before, and I felt like it needed to go with me to the Stonehenge too. Plus, July 4th is the Independence Day in the USA, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to project a bit of my American spirit.

I think that Stonehenge makes a great backdrop for the kimono! I wonder if I'm going to start a trend now? ;P The photo above is my absolute favorite out of all the ones my husband took that day, and I think it might even make it as one of my business cards or even a postcard.

Goodbye, England! I'm glad that my last time wearing kimono here ended up mega epic and memorable!

~ Lyuba