All I need are the wee little boots

[chamekke]

As some of you know, I study Japanese tea ceremony. This hobby requires me to wear kimono. Also, obi - that wide "sash" you see worn around the waist although IMHO a better descriptor would be waist trimming sauna belt, those suckers are HOT.

Anyway! Ichiroya is a second-hand online kimono and obi shop in Japan, and a good place to find affordable togs. I was idly browsing through today's offerings when I came across this little number in the obi section:



I thought, there's something eerily familiar about this, isn't there? So I looked at a close-up:



Extre-e-e-eme close-up:



Bingo!



o_0

0_o

To be honest ... if I could embroider a musketeer hat onto this thing, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
 

Comments

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

The blue-purple one has a gorgeous background texture in it too and I love the sparrows. *g*


The last one now makes me want a remake of Rambo with really pissed off Geishas. Hey, let's make a Kickstarter campaign. :D

As to the Godzilla one, I remember deeply craving it when you first posted it. I'm trying to decide what the matching Obi might have on it. Mothra? The twins? Planes?

[chamekke.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of kimono I love for different reasons. Sometimes it's the background texture alone, where the kimono is made with rinzu (silk jacquard). For example, this "plain" kimono:



...has the most lovely woven design of "four-season flowers" (including maple leaves and pine boughs), meaning it can be worn at any time of the year:



I really like the bold, semi-abstract designs that were popular earlier in the 20th century. For exmaple, here's a kimono jacket with a design of boats and waves (seen from above):



Spider chrysanthemums:



Maple leaves:



And a modern-day yukata (cotton kimono for summer) with hydrangeas:



As to the Godzilla one, I remember deeply craving it when you first posted it. I'm trying to decide what the matching Obi might have on it. Mothra? The twins? Planes?

I've been looking for a real-life obi for ages to match it in my imagination. Sadly none of the ones you mention have shown up. (If I could design one, it'd probably have police cars running around the waist in a big, panicky circle.)

This is the best thing I can come up with, mainly because it would imply that Godzilla was menacing Mount Fuji and therefore symbolically ALL OF JAPAN OMG:



P.S. There was also a 2-piece "easy obi" I fell in love with - the fabric was the following all-over design. Sadly, it was in too poor condition to wear in real life, but here it might suit just fine:

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I love both the wave idea and the panicky circle of police cars. :D