New Red Sakura Furisode

New Red Furisode, originally uploaded by shira.C.

A while ago, I was trying on a juban to show a friend and I thought it'd also be nice to show her how the juban would look under the furisode, so I tossed on one of the new furisode that I got at Yamatoku's furisode festival last year.

I really love this red one! I've been looking for a red furisode for a long time, but most that I see just aren't too my taste. This one was perfect in every way, from the shade of red to the pattern and the colour scheme and most importantly - the size XD;

I'm not dressed in a full outfit because I have yet to stumble across the perfect obi for this furisode. I saw something that was nearly close to perfect, but the colour scheme of the obi wasn't 100% perfect, so I let it go. I'm still waiting and biding my time, though... XD

(If you're only here for the kimono and not personal updates, you might want to leave here ^^;)

It's been a crazy few weeks at work~ My company was organising a conference and it's finally over!! *phew* My team was working 18 hour days for 2 weeks, including weekends - and before that we were working 14 hour days for a month haha. Some of the others didn't get any sleep at all... (I made sure I got some sleep - I'm a complete grouch if I don't get enough sleep XD;)

..... And now, there is another conference coming up on Tuesday, and yet another one in the US in less than a month's time. Not really looking forward to it! XD;;

This year's schedule is looking pretty busy... but I'm still hopeful for more kimono outings with friends XD; I'm hoping this year will be a more active year with kimono and blogging for me!

I'm just re-starting my Tips & Tricks (T&T) post on kimono fit that I promised in my last T&T post, but it's taking abit of time because I keep deleting and re-drafting it haha. It's turning out to be more annoying that I thought! I'll most likely have to split it into three parts - one for measuring kimono to see if it fits you, one on how to wear kimono that are too small for you and one on how to wear kimono that are too big for you (not that I have much experience in that area!!). Hopefully it'll be out before June at this rate XP;;

Bye, and a solemn Good Friday to you all.

(Omg just realised that I'm posting a red kimono on Good Friday ^^;;; I guess it matches the vestments for today's Mass?)

Pink Plaid Kofurisode

This afternoon, I was working on something that was starting to give me an awful headache by 5.30pm, so I decided to stop, rest and take some time to myself.

And.... here's the result XD

I've been feeling particularly inspired to wear kimono for the past few months but never found the time, so I thought I ought to take the chance now when I have the house and a few hours all to myself.

I've been eyeing up a couple of Kitsuke Challenges on the IG forums, namely the Stripes challenge and the Stop Buying, Start Wearing challenge. This kimono just happened to fit both! I've been feeling particularly girly lately, so the pink colour scheme was perfect.

I actually had a couple of other outfits for this kofurisode that used a white obi and purple or yellow accessories, but I felt they were a little bland today, so instead I whipped up another outfit that felt bright and girly enough for today. I chose this dark purple hakata obi that Hong gave me a long time ago because, well, it's hakata XD I paired them with pink accessories because I wanted a really girly outfit, and the original yellow I wanted to wear didn't seem so attractive to me after a while.

The loose side-braid was for a more feminine feeling (that, and I was lazy to do a bun), complete with purple accessory at the end of the braid, and I'm wearing matching grape-shaped purple earrings. The bag was a free gift that just happened to match the colour scheme.

I'm always told that kofurisode shouldn't be worn with otaiko musubi (something that I do way too often), but this kofurisode's pattern is so informal that it seems weird to me to wear even a bunko musubi with it!

It's been sooooo long since I last wore kimono! (Well, kimono outside of yukata at any rate hahaha). I think it's been about 10 months since the last time I tried to tie an otaiko on myself! That would kind of explain why my back is so ugly today... :P (=no back pictures! :P)

Today's kitsuke is not as neat as my usual standards, but I suppose for not having dressed in 10 months, it'll have to do XD; Still, I'm happy with the way it turned out, even if it did take much longer than usual :)

P/S: I've been meaning to post something about the Japan earthquake, but at first, I didn't know how to put my thoughts into words, then came that incredibly embarrassing ordeal with Berita Mingguan and the PM's wife.... well, I really had no idea what to say then! I can only offer my sincerest apologies to all who were offended :/ Please believe me when say that no one I know agreed with either of them, and we were all mortally embarrassed to be called Malaysian when we found out as well.

Japan, we're all praying for you! :)