A Taste of Kimono

While buying display racks for my fiber products and the kimono I sell I met Kirsten Houseknecht--having heard her utter the magic words " beads" and "fabric" in one breath I had to introduce myself. As women's conversations so often go, this one went places, several of them, in fact. And like so many of my conversations over the last year or so it went to kimono, and next thing, I'm pulling kimono out of the Mary Poppins bag and she's trying them on, there in the parking lot of Gershel Brothers. Sometimes I think we women are just so cool! As the conversation went on she's coming up with all kinds of suggestions of places I can sell my kimono, because they are fabulous, and after all, we fabriholic women need to stick together, right?

In deference to you, Kirsten, I'm NOT posting pictures of the kimono you covet, but I got it together today to start photographing my collection of truly lovely Japanese fiber arts. I'm not putting these on my etsy site yet as I'll be at Brimfield Antiques Market (Mahogany Ridge, look for the big textile tent) for the next week--it runs from Tuesday to Saturday, right after the Labor Day weekend. Sunrise, in fact! But since I may not get online for a while I don't want to have anyong buy one on etsy while I'm selling it in Brimfield. I just can't resist posting pictures since I finally have them!


I do have full length kimono but didn't get to any of them, nor to most of my haori--that's where the fibro overcame the fabro. These are probably my best haori, though, and certainly my favorites. The first is a meisen (ie, ikat) from the 1920s--my favorite, even though I can't wear it. It's a luscious shiny silk that just makes the soft-focus flowers glow. Meisen is an interesting technique. While most ikat weaving is from threads that have been painstakingly tie-dyed then arranged and woven, in meisen the dye is stenciled onto the threads on the loom prior to weaving, which when woven produces the soft focus. It's a lovely technique which was most produced in the early Showa period, or roughly from the late teens or 20s through about the 1950s.


The next one I can wear, and boy do I feel special in it! It's a 1940s meisen, but you can tell that without my saying it. I think of the mums as fireworks, it's got that celebratory feel to it. It looks great on many people, not just me!





Then there's the one that's probably my oldest, a lovely deep red meisen of hydrangeas. This one looks really dramatic on and in motion--I think it's less something someone would be inclined to hang on a wall and more inclined to wear to quite stunning effect. The true color is a bit deeper, less warm of a red.

More tomorrow!