What is kimono dress? Kimono dress history and description.

Introduction

The kimono means a thing to wear from the verb, ki means to wear and the noun mono means the thing is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono dress is a T-shaped, square lining with a rectangular body covering the front garment and is worn on the left side, covering the right if not worn. The kimono dress is traditionally worn with an obi and is usually worn with accessories such as zori sandals and tabi socks.

Kimono dress

The kimono dress is traditionally made from bolts of fabric known as tanmono, which is woven in a narrow width and long length. The width of the tanmono varies between men and women and there are different types of kimonos for men, women, and children. The type of kimono dress worn can also vary depending on the age of the wearer, the formality of the ceremony, and commonly the marital status of the wearer. Although the kimono dress is usually worn only at formal events in modern times, the kimono dress can be worn at every formal event.

Kimono dress in Japan

In modern time Kimono dress in Japan, the kimono is uncommonly worn as an everyday garment, and the Japanese person has consistently dropped out of fashion as the most common garment to wear. The kimono is now most frequently seen at summer festivals, where people often wear the yukata, which is one of the most informal types of kimono. The kimono is also worn at funerals, weddings, and other formal occasions. The most frequently worn kimono in Japanese society is older men and women who may have grown up wearing it, although much less often than in previous generations. Geisha and Maiko and sumo wrestlers, always have to wear kimonos in public.

Kimono dress history

The kimono dress history is very long back. The first examples of kimono-national clothing in Japan were the traditional Chinese dress in Japan through Chinese ambassadors during the Kofun period, which became the Chinese style of Chinese dress, appearance, and culture among the emigrants between the two countries and the ambassadors of the Tang Dynasty. Japanese courts are extremely popular in society. The kosode resembled a modern kimono, although, at this point, the sleeve was sewn off at the back and was smaller in width than the wider body of the garment. During the Sengoku period and the Azuchi-Momoyama period, bold designs and chic early colors of kimono became popular. Nowadays, most people in Japan wear Western clothing every day and probably wear too much on formal occasions such as weddings and funerals or summer events, where the standard kimono dress is easy to wear, the single-layer cotton yukata. In the Western world, kimono-style women’s jackets like casual cardigans caught the public’s attention in 2014 as a popular fashion item.

Kimono dress how to make

Historically, all fabric bolts woven for kimonos were hand-woven, and even after the introduction of machine weaving in the 19th century, several well-known kimono fabrics are still produced in this way. Oshima tsumugi is a variety of slub-woven silk produced in Amami Oshima, which is known to be highly desirable as a casual kimono fabric. Bashofu, a variety of Japanese fiber banana fabric is very desirable as a casual fabric but produces very few bolts of fabric per year due to the growing method used to produce plants. Other varieties of kimono fabric, which was produced out of necessity by the lower and working class were made by hobbyists and artisans for their rustic appeal rather than the necessity of making their own garments. Saki-ori, a variety of rag-woven fabrics commonly used to make obi from scraps, historically produced in strips cut from about 1 cm old kimono, of which one obi requires about three old kimonos requiring this obi was completely one-sided and often blue dyestuff featuring striped, check, and arrow-shaped designs using arrows. Formal kimonos made of expensive and thin silk cloth, when they became useless to adults, were generally unsuitable for practical clothing; The kimono was shortened, the Okuma was closed, and the collar was sewn again to make a haori, or cut only at the waist to make a jacket tied at the side.

Kimono dress description

The kimono dress is a T-shaped, square lining with a rectangular body covering the front garment and is worn on the left side, covering the right if not worn. The kimono is made from bolts of fabric traditionally known as tanmono that is woven in a narrow width and long length. The width of the tanmono varies between men and women and there are different types of kimonos for men, women, and children. The type of kimono worn can vary depending on the age, the formality of the ceremony, and the marital status of the wearer. Although the kimono is usually worn only at formal events in modern times, the kimono can be worn at every formal event.

Kimono dress design

Kimono dress design depends on the type of fiber. Kimono is made from a wide variety of fiber types, including hemp, linen, silk, crepe, and figured satin weaves like rinzu. Fabrics are typical for kimono is woven as bolts of narrow width. Formal kimono is almost always made from silk, with thicker, heavier, stiff, or matte fabrics usually being considered informal. After the opening of Japan's borders to Western trade in the early Meiji period, the use of many materials and techniques, such as wool, and the use of synthetic dyestuffs became popular, with casual wool kimono becoming relatively common in pre-19 Japan; safflower dye was also used for silk lining fabrics in pre-1960 Japan and kimono is easily recognizable from this era. Fibers like Rayon were widely spread during WW2, it was affordable to produce and inexpensive to buy and usually featured printed designs.

Types of kimono dress

There are different types of kimono dresses are found. Such as below-

1. Women's kimono

The ordinary woman's kimono dress may consist of twelve or more separate pieces; Some dresses, such as formal wedding kimonos, may require the assistance of a licensed kimono dresser. Choosing the right type of kimono requires knowledge of the wearer's age, occasional marital status, the formality of the occasion, and season. Women's kimonos are-

i. Yukata

Yukata is a casual cotton summer kimono. It is basically a very simple blue and white cotton kimono, a little more than a bathrobe worn indoors or locally for short walks; The yukata was also worn by guests at the inns, and the Yucatan design showed that anyone had been there since the mid-1960s, responding to the demand for more casual kimonos that could be worn at summer festivals, starting to come in a variety of colors and designs. Most yukatas are brightly colored, featuring large sizes of different seasons.

ii. Furisode

Furisode means swing sleeve kimono is the most traditional kimono for a young, often unmarried, woman. These are adorned with colorful patterns throughout the dress and are usually worn by the bride herself or unmarried younger female relatives at Seijin Shiki weddings.

iii. Hōmongi

Hōmongi means visiting wear, different in their motive placement. The motifs flow over the right shoulder of the back and the right sleeve of the back, the front left shoulder, and the front left sleeve and the hem, higher on the left than on the right. These are always made of silk and are considered more formal than tsukesage.

iv. Edo Komon

Edo Common is a type of komon characterized by a very small repetition pattern, usually painted in white on a colorful background. The Edo Komon dyeing technique originated in the samurai class during the Edo period. The Edo Common iromuji has the same formality, and the Edo Common can be worn with low-formality visiting as less clean inspection wear; That is why they are always made of silk apart from the regular komon.

V. Tsukesage

Below the Tsukesage Homongi is a one-step low-level formalwear, where the motifs usually do not cross the boundaries of each kimono panel but have the same space as the Homongi. The similarities between the two often lead to confusion, some tsukesage without the near-difference of Homongi. Tsukesage can be in one to three kamon, and can be worn at parties, but not ceremonies or highly formal events.

vi. Susohiki

Susohiki Kimono is a long kimono performed by geisha, maiko, kabuki actors, and people performing traditional Japanese dances. A Susohiki can be up to 230 cm long and usually no less than 200 cm from the shoulder to the hem. This allows the kimono to trail along the floor.

2. Men's kimono dress

In contrast to women's kimono, men's kimono dresses are simple, usually five pieces, not with footwear. Men's kimono sleeves are attached to the body of the kimono that extends a few inches below, in contrast to the style of the deep stews of women who are mostly away from the body of the kimono. Men's sleeves are less deep than women's kimono sleeves to attach an obi around the lower waist, where a woman's kimono, not being long, can hang on the obi without finding any way to stay under the sleeve. The main difference between the male kimono in the modern era lies in the fabric. Ordinary men have a subdued, dark color; Black, dark blues, green and brown are common.

3. Bridalwear

In Japan, brides who choose to wear a kimono will wear certain accessories and types of kimono, which may change and change for some part of the occasion; For example, the water bashi hood is removed during the ceremony, and after the ceremony is over, Uchika is usually put on top of the Shiromuku bridal kimono at the reception. Many bridalwear like the addition of a small snatch, a combination of earlier era samurai dress and face.

i. Tsunokakushi

Tsunokakashi is a style worn by brides at childhood weddings. Tsunokashi can be made of white silk and the bride's white headdress can be worn on the wedding kimono, or when the bride chooses the headdress style option, they can be made with colorful materials to combine. Tsunokakashi, unlike Wata Boshi, does not cover the high topknot made of taka shimada style wig of the brides.

ii. Kanzashi

Kanzashi hair ornaments made of tortoiseshell or faux-tortoiseshell are worn with Takashimaya wig. These hairstyles will come with a decorated Kushi comb and a matching set with Kogai hair sticks and several Bira-Bira-style kanzashi, often decorated with tortoiseshell or metal and flowers in coral or coral-alternatives.

iii. Hakoseko

Hakoseko is a highly decorative purse worn in a wedding kimono. These are also made out of decorative brocade fabric, often with tassels at the end of the purse and usually some combination of a small mirror and a comb.