2015 in Review

2015 has been quite a year for me kitsuke wise. This is the first year I truly dedicated myself to kimono and kitsuke. I made the resolution in January to wear kimono once a month every month and I have succeeded! In this year my kitsuke improved greatly as did my collection, I made some great kimono friends and gained more confidence going out in kimono. 

In this post I want to go back and look at a few of my favourite ensembles (in no particular order) as well as go into my kimono resolutions for next year! 

I'll start with this one since it's a pre-blog kitsuke. Using my purple iromuji and adorable pink floral haori (can't wait til it's in season again!). 

 

From the Harajuku fashion walk downtown. I really loved this ensemble and all the accessories. 

 Sushi meet ensemble! And the purple iromuji makes another appearance. I love accessories with kimono!

Halloween kitsuke! I'm thinking after this ensemble I am needing more black and hot pink in my wardrobe!

 Finally my bunny kimono makes this list. I have been lusting after a bunny kimono for years and I am so happy to have this one now!

My Resolutions for 2016: 

1. Set up my kimono room!
2. Continue wearing kimono at least once a month every month!
3. Get crafting some cute accessories!
4. Lose weight to better fit into my smaller items. 
5. Buy less kimono and more of everything else!

Thank you for reading!

Kitsuke Dump Post!

I haven't been posting regularly at all, but I have still be dressing up. I figured I would just dump all the pics of recent outfits into one post and then we could all move on. I'll try and keep them in chronological order.

Hal-Con Day 2/Halloween Outfit

I knew I wanted to dress up in kimono for halloween, and Hal-con taking place over halloween weekend seemed to be a perfect excuse. I decided to do a witch theme, so I got a witch's hat and dug out my pentacle earrings. I absolutely love this tsumugi komon, I just wish it was a tad bigger.

I didn't realize until after the day was over and I went to post the pics that my hubby's shadow is covering most of me, gah!

Also this obi was giving me quite a bit of trouble. That back design just didn't want to line up nicely.

Hal-Con Day 3

I did a panel on kimono on day 3 so I decided to go with my best fitting kimono to make a good impression. I went with my blue geometric tsuke obi because by day 3 I was feeling work out and head-achy and didn't want anything too challenging. I didn't really get any full body pics of this one unfortunately. 

Christmas Craft Meet

Another one I didn't get any full pics of. I had wanted to wear my hitoe moon, bunny, and clover tsukesage at least once before it got way to cold for hitoe. This weekend was surprisingly warm for November so I took it. This was one of those days that I slept to late and had to rush to get dressed so I pulled out the blue tsuke obi again. It is fast becoming one of my most used items. It matches many things and I love the convenience of tsuke obi. Also broke out my lace haori here as well. 

Casual Lunch Meet

This outfit was not at all what I was originally intended to wear. I was disappointed to find on the day of the meet, that I had put on a few too many pounds in the last few month and could no longer comfortably fit into my intended kimono (at least not without flashing other people). I ended up just tossing on the biggest kimono I own in frustration (which is my moon bunny tsukesage) and once again the tsuke obi because at this point I was so far behind schedule. I was thanking my lucky stars it was almost 15 degrees Celsius that day so I was just warm enough. I did manage to get a few full body pics this time around though so yay! Also first kimono pics with my new do!

And that's it for 2015! I successfully completed my 2015 New Years Resolution to wear kimono at least once a month every month. I intend to keep it up in 2016!

Thank you for looking! 

Sushi Night Outfit

Last weekend the local KDJ went out for sushi. I had recently received this pine needle and pine cone obi, which I know is more of a winter motif but it's been so cold around here that it's been feeling like winter. The entire outfit was built around this obi:

Seller's photo

I thought combining the pine details of the obi with the wood grain of my much loved dusty purple iromuji would be a nice touch, with the added bonus of combing pastel and black which I am really feeling lately. I also finally got to break out my lace haori! It was super cold out that day at a chilly 3 degrees Celsius so of course a hat and scarf was a must. Overall I am very pleased with this outfit. I am however a bit bummed out that I did not manage to get very good pics of it. 

Obligatory selfie

This upcoming weekend is Hal-con which is potentially three days to wear kimono. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I should break out my lolita on one of the days or just wear kimono for all three. 

Thanks for looking!

Kitsuke Challenge #4

After a bit of a lull in my blogging, I am back and ready to begin with regular posting. As the days grow cooler I am finding myself with more energy and also a much wider variety of kimono items to wear. I don't know about you guys, but I can only cycle through the same two kimono before I become very bored and have much less desire to dress up. I'm really hoping now that the weather is growing cooler there will be more summer kimono available and that they wont be snapped up quite as quick as they are during the summer months so that this time next year I can offer far more interesting content.

Today I am going to talk about my least favourite kimono items. so far. This is going to be a bit harder for me since I don't think I have any true regrets or dislikes in my collection, apart from kimono that I've bought that are far to small for me. 

How did you find out about kimono.

What are your dearest kimono items.

What are your most used item(s) (not counting juban, date-jime, etc)

What are your least favourite item(s) so far.

What are your favourite co-ordinations so far.

What things do you like and not like about kimono.

Kimono confessions. Did you know that...

Your want to buy list (or would buy if you had money/occasion to wear it)

Biggest fears and wishes when it comes to kimono.

My biggest inspirations in kimono

My kimono collection.

The evolution of my kitsuke

First item is this kimono which isn't a very strong dislike, it's more so just an item I feel apathetic to. It's an off-white hitoe komon with multi-coloured flowers. I'm not entirely sure what type of flower they are, but I'm leaning toward kiku, or maybe daisy? I really should take it to IG to get diagnosed. It definitely has a strong spring feel which I think discredits the idea that they are kiku.

I got this botan obi to go with the above kimono. I think they two look nicely together, however the obi turned out to be brighter than I expected. It looks relatively muted here and I bought it expecting a pleasant kelly green, but in real life it is more of a fluorescent green which I am not terribly fond of. 

And there you have it, my dislikes from my collection. For a time I considered talking about my general dilikes when it comes to kimono but I decided to save that for the 6th entry. Thank you for taking the time to read this far. For regular updates on new entries, outfit sneak peaks and recent purchases you can follow my facebook page! 

Cheesecake Meet

Hello lovelies! This is only going to be a quick post. This past month has been hectic what with starting a new job and general life stuff. I haven't had much chances to dress up, but earlier this month the Halifax comm got together for some delicious cheesecake. I paired my only ro kimono with my black kikyo obi and pink and yellow accessories. I wanted to wear this obi even though it's not the most seasonally appropriate because I hate heat and and am very impatiently waiting for fall and cooler weather. I didn't take any back shots since my obi musubi turned out awful. Please excuse my expression and questionable hair, this was after working 8 hours in a hot kitchen.

Thanks!

Pride Parade Meet

Pride Parade is like the ultimate time to dress up. People expect a bit of outlandishness and fabulousness, so we thought what better time to get dressed up and show our support for the LGBTQ community at the same time. We ended up being stopped a few time by people telling us they liked our outfits and thought we looked awesome. 

It was really rainy and a bit chilly so I decided to wear my yukata so I didn't have to worry about water stains on kimono, but I dressed it up kimono style with a juban, nagoya obi and obi-jime and obi-age. Definitely not traditional, but I was pretty pleased with the outcome and didn't have any issues with being too cold like the last time I wore my yukata.

For this month's meet we decided to get together and watch the Pride Parade. We also headed down to a really nice local sushi restaurant called Ko-Doraku. I had a really tasty kampyo roll, some chicken udon and pork dumplings. The owner was very happy to see us in kimono and came out afterwards to tell us how pleased he was. He said we made him think of summer and Japan!  After that we checked out the new library and then headed out to play some board games at the Board Room Cafe. It was a total blast and I can't wait to hang out with these lovely people again. 

I personally didn't get any photos, but once again my friend Jessica managed to get some nice ones of me so I'm posting them here with her permission.

At the parade!

Walking through the crowd. Please excuse the obi, it got a bit wonky after it came loose and had to be retied.

At the restaurant they had this gorgeous uchikake hanging on the wall with some samurai armor so of course we had to stop and get a group picture. They also had some really gorgeous fukuro obi on display as well! It was such a lovely atmosphere! I really want to go back again sometime in the future!

I can't wait until the next meet! For updates please be sure to like my facebook page!

Kitsuke Challenge Part 3

Summer is one of my least favourite seasons. The heat saps my energy, the humidity turns me into a cranky puddle. I really have no motivation to do anything more than lazing on the couch with my curtains closed, fan turned up, eating popsicles and watching netflix. My kimono summer wardrobe is in a sorry state as well. I have almost no summer items. So far, with the exception of one obi you've seen the entire extent of my summer wardrobe. This is sort of my warning to say that as far as new outfits, it's probably going to be a sparse summer. Sorry!

The heat and my laziness is pretty much why I haven't been keeping up with my kimono challenge and kitsuke inspiration posts. I will do my best to step it up. I really do apologize. 

For this week we are going to look at my most used kitsuke items. This does not include juban, koshi-hime, eri-shin, and whatnot.

How did you find out about kimono.

What are your dearest kimono items.

What are your most used item(s) (not counting juban, date-jime, etc)

What are your least favourite item(s) so far.

What are your favourite co-ordinations so far.

What things do you like and not like about kimono.

Kimono confessions. Did you know that...

Your want to buy list (or would buy if you had money/occasion to wear it)

Biggest fears and wishes when it comes to kimono.

My biggest inspirations in kimono

My kimono collection.

The evolution of my kitsuke

I have a few go-to outfits that see a lot of use. They feature the few items I have that really fit me well in the sense that I don't have to hold panels shut, they are long enough, I don't need to feel self concious when I wear them.

My first go-to kimono is the beautiful blue rose tsukesage. It's a nice moderate formality. I really like pairing this with my pink fukuro with flowers and streams (which you will see down below) and green accessories to pull the green up from the stems and leaves of the flowers 

This is the obi that frequently gets paired up with the above kimono. It's a pretty muted fukuro. No metallics, gold or silver. It can be dressed casually a lot easier than many fukuro I see floating around. It has pretty much every flower imaginable floating in pink streams. I feel like it's a decently all-season item so it gets pulled out a lot. Here's a shot of the items together. 

I have a few other shots of this outfit in action at other times, but they are honestly pretty embarrassing, so this will have to do. 

The next items is this greyish lavender iromuji with a woven woodgrain design. It's super long and also purple! I have a deep love for purple and my collection is hugely dominated by purple. I have paired this with almost everything I own at one point or other, but it frequently gets paired with the below tsuke obi.

I'm pretty sure they are stylized mountains. Nice all-season piece that I use constantly!

This is my fave haori! I love the vintage design, and the length. I am so in love with long vintage haori! Outfit with all three pieces:

Bonus pic of lavender iromuji and pink fukuro!

MultiFest Meet

This weekend we had a meet at a local Multicultural Festival. The day before the meet it was warm and sunny, but the next day was cold and rainy. I ended up totally regretting wearing a yukata. Darn you fickle Nova Scotian summer! For this ensemble I wore my hearts and roses yukata and borrowed an obi from my friend Jessica since I don't have any appropriate hanhaba obi. It's such a cute obi! I found this cute headband at Claires. It has butterflies and yellowish-white and pink sunflowers. I thought it matched the colours in the outfit well. Unfortunately it's hard to see it in the pictures.

We ended up eventually leaving the Festival and making our way to a local sushi/cafe to warm up and grab a bite. I had a lot of fun despite freezing my toes off and can't wait til the next meet! 

Kimono Challenge Week 2

For this week's kimono challenge we will be looking at my most dear kimono items.

How did you find out about kimono.

What are your dearest kimono items.

What are your most used item(s) (not counting juban, date-jime, etc)

What are your least favourite item(s) so far.

What are your favourite co-ordinations so far.

What things do you like and not like about kimono.

Kimono confessions. Did you know that...

Your want to buy list (or would buy if you had money/occasion to wear it)

Biggest fears and wishes when it comes to kimono.

My biggest inspirations in kimono

My kimono collection.

The evolution of my kitsuke

I really don't have anything very rare in my collection, but I really cherish all the items I own. I really don't think I could sell many of them, it would be like parting with old friends.

My first most beloved item is this modern camellia komon that a friend gave me for my birthday. It is so pretty! I haven't worn it yet, but hopefully this winter it can make it's debut.

This komon is so adorable and I love it to bits. The seller listed it as too stained to wear, but I really couldn't pass it up. I lucked out though, when it showed up and was totally wearable. The only staining was the faintest, tiniest yellow stains that you have to have your nose pressed against it to see. (Why would you be that close to my kimono?)

Oh my gosh this haori! I would wear it with everything if I could. I really love the design. it's super long, and it's PURPLE! After I bought this haori I have sworn off the shorter, modern haori. Taisho length all the way!

Hopefully you've enjoyed this week's post. I had a hard time just picking out just a few favourites. If you would like to be updated whenever a new post goes up, please follow my facebook page. 

Harajuku Fashion Walk

This weekend was the third Harajuku Fashion walk, so of course I had to go rep kimono hime! The last time I did the fashion walk in Sept I was the only one in kimono. This time there was four of us! I didn't manage to get many pictures. I am so terrible at that! Fortunately my friend Jessica managed to get some really nice ones so I am reposting those here with her permission. For my outfit, I finally got a chance to wear my ro komon with clouds and cranes. I've been looking forward to wearing it since I got it in April! I also got a chance to wear this purple geometric obi that I've had for a while, but haven't worn for some reason. I added a bunch of my lolita accessories and my duck plushie purse. Here's the finished ensemble.

Under the giant wave on the waterfront. Picture from Jessica.

Group shot! Jessica's picture as well!

There was a photographer at the event that took a few shots of me as well, but I'm still waiting on those. I had an absolute blast and received many compliments on my outfit and accessories. I can't wait til the next walk. Hopefully there will be an autumn one as well. Thank you for looking!