Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No595
This is Yuka from Ichiroya.
Ichiro has been asked to write about kimono for young men by the website called `Bokurano Closet'(Our Closet), which is for young men. The concept of the website is `finding joy and new life style from things and value left behind' and young men's fashion companies and related companies are the sponsors.
Ichiro did not know what to write - he is 56 years old now and is a grandpa-he checks all kimono and obi to list on our website every day (we list new arrivals approx 140 or so each day) but he was at a loss about young men's kimono fashion and passed all this task to our daughter Mugi, she shows kimono and obi coordination everyday.
She is recently married and Norihiro, her husband is working for a fashion field (not kimono). Mugi was forced to do her father's task but with Norihiro, she made the report of trial- Cool way of wearing kimono in present life! This is the summary of the report, please enjoy the page (sorry the page is in Japanese) with the photos and the following summary.
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(summary)
The sudden mission from my father! I just needed the help of my husband, Norihiro.
I too seldom see young men wearing kimono except very special occasions such as Coming-of-age ceremony and so on.....
I chose some kimono and and decided to see what he does with them.
Just as other Japanese young men, he had almost no experience of wearing kimono--he remembers he wore yukata before but that was all.
He could not tell the difference of haori, kimono or juban. Patterned juban took his attention - he thought juban can be worn alone! He is like a foreigner seeing kimono for the first time:-) , but he is not an exception, I think most Japanese young men are like Norihiro.
As I showed him some kimono and other items, gradually he became interested in and tried to match his shirt or hat with them..
His favorite was antique cotton ranru and he matched with his denim suit he recently bought. Ranru are loved by foreign artists and collecters for the uniqueness as unintentional art. Norihiro did not know about ranru before but he fell in love with ranru and said he wanted to use ranru for interior display also! He kept saying it is so cool!
Next thing he picked was a simple kimono (cotton & linen)- for him, the kimono looked like a Chesterfield coat!
As you can see, kimono are really `unfamiliar' thing for Japanese young men - and seems to be like new item! We hope you enjoy our coordination.
Dad, you owe me one!
