Kimonos in Kyoto

On Monday morning, we traveled to the Nishijin Textile Center, one of the local Kimono shops where we were able to see a kimono fashion show, do some shopping, see how the kimonos and obis are made, and even try on some kimonos. The fashion show consisted of the models coming out on to the stage in different styles of kimonos with various designs. Each of the kimonos were different colors and served different purposes. Here are some pictures from the show.

After the fashion show, we were taken into a room at the back of the shop where there were a few racks of kimonos for us to get dressed up in. We each picked out a kimono and were helped into them. The women that were helping us used many different pieces that each had their own purposes. Once we were completely dressed in the kimonos, the obis were quite tight; they seemed almost to be the Japanese version of the corset. It was really quite interesting to see the similarities in garments worn between the traditional Japanese kimono and the traditional dress of Europe.

Once we were dressed, we were allowed to go and look around the shop and see if we wanted to buy anything. It was a little hard to do because the kimono skirts restricted leg movement, so in order to walk, you had to take small, quick steps and going up and down the stairs was quite difficult. While we were shopping we were able to see some looms that are used in the making of the kimonos and the obis. One of the women working the looms was making an obi and she explained some of the work she was doing. For the particular obi design she was working on she had to use nine different colors of thread to complete the design of the obi. There were a series of pedals that she pushed in order to raise certain threads to put certain colored threads through, thus creating the design.

Although kimonos are not worn on a day to day basis in Japan because the simply are not practical (it takes twenty minutes to get dressed in a kimono correctly), they are still very expensive (can be up to ten thousand U.S. dollars) and can be passed down from generation to generation and become family treasures. Kimonos are a particularly big deal when it comes to Coming of Age Day which, luckily we were in Japan for. On coming of age day we were able to see many girls who had just turned twenty walking around in their kimonos which were quite possibly their first kimonos and the kimonos which their relatives had worn before them that had been passed down to them through the generations.

-Tess M. (Class of 2016)