Closet Feature: Kurotomesode pictures!

On Friday, Hong brought over some of her kimono for me to try on! We took looooooads of pics ^_^ In fact, we took so many that I'm only going to post them in batches! Today, I'm posting the kurotomesode batch, where I'm "modelling" her kurotomesode.

Just to clarify myself, kurotomesode is the most formal kimono a married woman can wear. Unmarried women are not supposed to wear it at all, which means I'll have to keep mine in storage for a few more decades! Haha. Kurotomesode are usually worn to the most formal ceremonies like the weddings of your immediate family (siblings and children).

The room is messy because we were rotating my kimono (summer kimono go into storage, winter kimono get taken out) so everything was strewn all over the place! Also, I'm not really wearing anything properly - we were too lazy to actually practice our kitsuke!

This one is her absolutely gorgeous kurotomesode with an embroidered pheasant on it. It's so sweet! It's black, white and purple, my favourite colour combination! It's also got gorgeous gold decorations.

An upclose of the hem...

This is just a picture of the hem of my kurotomesode, which I bought over 2 years ago. I hadn't had any idea how unusual and unique this motif was on kurotomesode until I took it out on Friday! I can't believe I was contemplating selling it - it's a piece I'll treasure! Especially since it's one of my first kimono purchases hehe..

I love love LOVE the lining!! It's also got decoration all over it!

This is just a picture of the hem of Hong's ro chidori kurotomesode. THIS one was a really rare piece, and it cost her only JPY3000! That's about $30! O_O It's ro (summer-weave, semi-transparent, very light), it's got really long sleeves, and it's got chidori (plovers) on it!! We're not sure how old it is, but given the length of the sleeves, the feel of the silk and the pattern (it's "mirror image" - both hems have the same pattern mirroring each other), I think it's a pre-WW2 kurotomesode. For something so old, it's in fantastic condition. Here, we're just showing how you can see the pattern on the other hem from the front because of the semi-transparent summer weave.

Okay, that's all for now! :) I'll be posting the rest of Friday's pictures later tonight or tomorrow. I'll also blog about and post the pictures from yesterday's MCM Expo in a separate batch. *waves bye*