Pitt Spring Fling 2012

Several weeks ago, my college’s Asian Studies Department put on a party for students of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. I of course did a kimono demonstration. When I asked for volunteers, my friend Jamie’s hand shot up first. Now, you may remember Jamie; she was with me on our trip to Otakon, so I was really relieved, since I already had experience dressing her:

I wore my Meiji outfit again, which garnered some questions from Takabatake-sensei, who was very shocked to learn I get all my kimono from eBay.

Excuse the picture quality, my friend was able to snap some shots with his phone, and I forgot to tell someone to be the paparazzi for me. I should see if any of my teachers have pictures.

Done! I was dying of heat by the end. lol But I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.

Otakon Outfit #3: Shamisen Kimono

If you know me from the IG Forums, chances are you know of my obsession with dance kimono (odori kimono). They are kimono meant to be worn for traditional Japanese dance and they can usually be defined by a few common features: unlined, synthetic, half-width collar, bold or contrasting colors or designs, and sometimes liberal use of metallics. Dance kimono are most commonly houmongi in pattern but they can be any type of kimono, including yukata (generally used for matsuri). I currently own 4 dance kimono and plan on wearing two of them to Otakon. I called this outfit #3 because it will probably be the last kimono I wear at Otakon, and I’ll soon update the blog with the other two outfits before I leave. I knew when I saw this kimono on eBay, I had to have it. So anyways, this is the picture of the kimono in question:

I finally got an obi to pair with it. It’s a Taisho era chuuya obi (double-sided, fukuro style, nagoya length obi) that was pointed out to be by BikaBika of the IG Forums after I noted that I wanted a kimono item with mahjong tiles or hanafuda cards on it. One side is the awesome side with the mahjong tiles, name cards, various crests, and a scale pattern called iroko. The other side however, is a very pink, very floral, Taisho-style design which is just, um… not my thing… BUT you don’t see it so who cares?

I was feeling inspired by this picture of a jikata geiko early that morning.

So I criss-crossed my obi and used a white obi-age since a) it was the best match I had and b) this geiko didn’t seem to mind mixing white and beige. So finally, here are the pictures!

Clicking them will bring you to the set on my Flickr. I’ve been having trouble with my collar lately; do you think that I brought it down too low? Comments and critiques are welcome! =)