Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.724
Dear Newsletter readers,
Hello, this is Mari. It's my turn to write our weekly
newsletter. How are you doing?
YES, it is December! 2017 will be over soon. Every year,
we have last minutes Christmas shoppers at Ichiroya.
Please note that it is the busiest time at post offices all over the world. So, often times, even EMS can't be delivered on time.
Please understand we can't guarantee your Christmas gift will be delivered to you or your beloved on time. If you still want to take a chance, then go ahead to place order as soon as possible! DON'T FORGET TO CHOOSE EXPRESS SHIPPING!
The top picture was taken in the morning of my first day of the elementary school. In Japan, there is a entrance ceremony when you enter schools such as pre-school, elementary school, junior high, high school and University. It is common to dress up, and attend with parents to the ceremonies. My mother is wearing her Tsukesage kimono which she brought when she got married with my father. (I'm wearing a yellow suit. Believe it or not, my mother sewed it!)
It was common to wear Tsukesage or Houmongi and black haori for school events like entrance and graduation ceremony until 80's. Back then, kimono was more popular and close to our daily life than nowadays. I remember my mother was wearing wool kimono as her daily clothes when I was a child.
I wear my mother's kimono. However, the Tsukesage was not in my taste. Actually, none of her daughters wanted to wear it.
So, she decided to transform it to saruel pants!
Can you recognize that my mother is wearing pants which were made from the Tsukesage kimono?
She has been making saruel pants for herself and her daughters. I have some. All of them were made from her old kimono, our childfood kimono, haori and kimono fabric bolt. The wide and loose silk saruel pants are very comfortable!
She wears the kimono saruel pants as her daily clothes. Also, she wears the pants at yoga lessons. Actually, she is a laughter yoga instructor. Those who have not heard about the unique kind of yoga, check Wikipedia out! It is very relaxing style of yoga which makes your daily life brighter, and your mind healthier.
She mainly teaches seniors. Many of them have not have a hearty laugh for long time. They even hesitate to laugh out loud in public. My mother says her Kimono pants are very useful to warm them up. They stair at her pants first. Then, start asking about them like, "Where did you get them?" " Well, are those made from Kimono?", "Did you make them by yourself?" etc. After they found out that she made them from her old kimono, they start talking about their kimono stories! Japanese seniors at their 60's and up used to wear kimono often when they are young. It was common to bring a huge chest of drawers full of kimono and obi when they got married. So, they talk about their kimono which have been avandoned in their chests for long time, just like my mother's Tsukesage kimono. By then, those seniors start laughing naturally. My mother said, if she wore just regular saruel pants, they wouldn't warm up like that. That's a power of kimono!
As we get used to wear Western clothes, we no longer wear kimono as we used to. Ichiroya encourage more people to wear kimono! We hope our reasonable price and easy access to kimono and obi help those kimono lovers and new to kimono people to wear kimono. At the same time, it sounds good to make something out of Kimono or kimono silk bolt! Wearing silk always make ladies feel special! Right?
My mother said it is easier to make the pants from bolt than kimono. It takes a lot time to unpick kimono. If you are thinking about making the pants, how about
the following bolts?
