Today, Kimono are most often worn by women and on special occasions. Traditionally, unmarried women wore a style of Kimono called furisode, with almost floor-length sleeves, on special occasions. A few older women and even fewer men still wear the kimono on a daily basis. Men wear the kimono most often at weddings, tea ceremonies, and other very special or very formal occasions. Professional Sumo wrestlers are often seen in the Kimono because they are required to wear traditional Japanese dress whenever appearing in public.
I think that there are two main reasons that we, Japanese do not wear Kimono on a daily basis. One of the reasons is it costs a lot to buy Kimono in Japan. Normally they are made in silk with an elaborated woven design so the price usually starts from 2000 euros. This is just the top garment and if you add other accessories such as Obi (wide sash), Obiage, Obijime, Haneri, and etc it will cost around 3000 euros.
Another reason is that it is so complicated to wear. The Japanese word for wearing Kimono is Kitsuke. For example myself, I cannot do Kitsuke by myself. I found a non Japanese woman who learned Kitsuke on Kimono group of Facebook and I really admire her! She learned from watching Youtube which is truely amazing thing to do because in Japan normally people go to lessons to learn it. She says she feels more elegant in Kimono than the western clothes. As a Japanese woman, she really inspired me and I have decided to learn Kitsuke. I do not know how long it will take me to learn but I have Kimono to practice it at least 🙂
I have found a good video showing how to wear Kimono. She is a non-Japanese woman and her Japanese friend is putting Kimono on her. You can see how complicated it is, let alone wearing it by yourself without any help. For the first 1 minute her hair arrangement and make up are shown so you can skip if you want. As you can see, it is not a comfortable clothing and it was funny to see her reaction sitting in the car 🙂
Her comment on Youtube: Japan’s traditional clothing – Kimono. Beautiful silk with amazing patterns. This kimono was made by our friend’s mom around 30 years ago. The materials are exquisite, and the obi (decorated belt) is extremely expensive silk. I was very lucky to put it on and I think not too many foreigners have an opportunity like this. I was really grateful! I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
The pink fabric shown above Obi on the video is called Obiage. Our silk scarves are also woven to make Obiage by a traditional weaver in north of Kyoto. They are not made to market European people or tourists but for Japanese people who wear Kimono. Therefore, you will find authentic Japanese design, either traditional or modern, and the quality is exceptional!
You can view our collection of silk scarves from here.
