Just Arrived #16

Hello Everyone, 

I got another red sha komon to add to my collection :). Actually it's more of a raspberry color, but that's ok with me! 

 I was in dire need of a new ro juban with shorter sleeves. The one I wear all the times has sleeves that are too long (because I let them out for wearing with vintage kimono), and doesn't work with my modern kimono. Now the situation is fixed and I have  a new juban with proper sleeves! As a bonus, I got a gorgeous haneri too.

Just Arrived #15

Hello Everyone,

I got lots of new goodies in the past two weeks. My summer collection is growing and growing! Which mean s I won't have to practically abandon kimono wearing during summer because it's too hot.

First up are couple sha hitoe kimono.

This kimono doesn't look like much in photos, but I knew it was going to be gorgeous in person. And I was right.

Finally, I got more obiage and obijime, because there are never enough of those!

This one is rather plain, but the texture is amazing!

This one turned out to be a gorgeous cream color.

Have you got anything good in the mail lately?

~ 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

Just Arrived #13

Yay for my happy mailbox! This kimono was actually my first order from Shinei after they got booted off Ebay, and all I can say is that their website is EVIIIIIL! I can't stay away! Thankfully they haven't had anything I like in about a week, so let's hope it continues to be that way. 

When I saw this kimono, I KNEW I had to have it because it's sha, and because I think the flowers on there are poppies. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but poppies are my favorite flowers and I'm in Lyuba heaven anytime I drive by whole fields of poppies in bloom. I sure will miss that when we leave UK. 

I am not actually entirely sure that the flowers are poppies because of how stylized they are, but I will maintain that they are since it's hot enough to wear this kimono right now, and the poppies are blooming left and right. See? Totally in season! In typical Shinei fashion, they said that it was unwearable. It has few pin sized holes in it, but other than that, it's perfect. I doubt anyone will notice those holes to begin with, even when I mend them. 

I'm glad I took a chance with this kimono because it paid off. Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky with the ro lily chuya obi I got in last week. I mentioned that it has a pretty big stain that wasn't mentioned anywhere in the description or photos, and here are some pictures of it. I took the photos because I'm actually contacting Shinei about it. I wasn't going to contact them about it at all at first, but then I spend couple of hours trying to figure out how to tie the damn obi (it's hikinuki, so pattern is upside down), figured out how to hide the stain, figured out some other damages might not get hidden (but I knew about them from the photos, so it's ok), remembered that I spent more than "usual" on this obi, still didn't figure out how to tie it and got really angry at the world. Hence an email to Shinei saying that I'm really upset about them not mentioning this big stain.. I did get a reply this morning asking for photos, so who knows? Something might come out of my righteous anger after all. 

Just Arrived #10

Hello Everyone,

Just when I resigned myself to more waiting, another parcel had arrived from Shinei. Only one more to go from their pre-Ebay-boot-out time, and the last one will be the most epic! But I'm not showing what I won until the item is safely in my hands. So stay tuned! :)

This kimono has a funny story to go with it. Apparently one of my online friends and I were bidding on the same two kimono. She says that she got a feeling she was bidding against me LOL. I gave up the other kimono in favor of this one, and she gave up this one in favor of the other kimono. How funny is that? But the great thing, at least I have a chance of seeing the other kimono in person, because it's GORGEOUS!

Shinei actually said that this kimono was unwearable, and that it had a hole in the sleeve. I didn't see any holes in photos, and didn't really see anything else unwearable about it, so I decided to take my chances. Once it arrived, I spent a good 5 minutes looking for the said hole, and yes it's there. It's right on the part where the sleeve is touching the hanger, so it's absolutely not visible in photos. It's going to be very easy to fix, so major yay. Otherwise, this kimono is in perfect condition.

Hey, look! More chuya obi! This one is kinda plain, but the other side makes up for it. Although I bet it will look great with some of my busier kimono. In the bright sun I thought it was dark blue like in the pictures, but now that I'm looking at it inside the house, it's deep purple.

I'm way too excited about that sha kimono!

~ Lyuba

Just Arrived #8

Hello Everyone,

Looking at my Just Arrived posts you would think that all I do is shop for kimono... well it's kinda true. I just take a while to shop and don't post until I get my hands on the items. I lost couple of pretty nice kimono to SAL shipping, so I don't like to announce to the whole world that I won something only for it not to arrive :(

I'm not a fan of asanoha usually, but this one is an exception... must be the stripes :) Oh, and it's ro too!

This gorgeous fukuro obi will match one of my furisode perfectly!

I was particularly excited about this set of vintage obijime, because they seemed to be one of those "fat" kinds. Sure enough, every single one of them is wider than normal!

These two are my favorites and probably the widest of the set. The top one could be worn two ways, although it might not have been intended that way since the light pink side is clearly more textured. Regardless, I plan on wearing both sides :) The bottom one is so deceptively simple, but in real life it's gorgeous salmon pink & turquoise! Naomi would be proud of that one! Oh, and it matches my nails AND my tshirt that I'm wearing right now :)

  Again, the bottom one could be worn two ways so I'm showing both sides.

 The one with the polka dots is my third favorite. It actually has the leaf pattern towards the ends, and the polka dots towards the middle. I bet it will look gorgeous worn!

 Another sha kimono for me! I could never have enough summer weight kimono.

As always, I could not pass up more dressing accessories. I got a set of different white stretched tabi and another set of obi itas. If only I could be that lucky with winning other types of dressing accessories!

Have you got anything new in the mail lately?

~ Lyuba