Modern Kimonos To Die For: These Designers Are Giving An Old Artform New Edge
Hello, fellow kimono lovers of all shapes, sizes, colors, & geographic persuasions!
If you’re like me, and love modern kimono dressing—especially my favorite kimono hime style—you’re in for a treat!
Kimono princessing is all about mixing East and West, colors and patterns, styles and eras, and it warmly embraces vintage, second-hand delights as well as new. But there are a growing number of talented designers who have boosted the ancient artform onto modern runways, and the results are utterly swoonworthy. If you haven’t been introduced to these fabulous brands yet, here’s a peek at my favorite modern kimono designers. (But don’t say I didn’t warn you: hide your credit card first, because it will definitely be trying to leap from your wallet!)
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TAMAO SHIGEMUNE
I love everything this designer has ever put together. She designs and illustrates her own fabrics in a painterly mixed-media style, and her choice of subject matter never fails to amuse and amaze
You can see her illustration style a little better here. Isn’t this a fabulous balance between modern and retro?
Here’s the designer herownself in one of her coordinations (at one of her trunk shows in Harajuku). I’d never have the nerve to put that kimono, obi and jacket together, which just shows what a novice I am, because it totally works
Even when she does elegant, it’s head-swiveling and eye-popping
You can romp through her current collection on the Tamao Shigemune website, but I also like her blog and @tamamshi Instagram, which are filled with more casual shots and great coordinations
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MAMECHIYO MODERN
Everything they make is sooooo stylish
Their obis are especially…hard…to…resist…aieeeee!
And look what I discovered on their Instagram! If you don’t have quite enough cash lying around to invest in their kimonos and obi, you can indulge your princess fantasies by renting one of their beyond-fabulous yukata coordinations for a day (more on rentals after I check it out myself!)
If a Gothic Lolita grew up to become the coolest of kimono designers, this would be her collection
The black and white pieces are modern and retro, fashion cult and Japon-esque, all at the same time
The collection’s not all black and white, and even the more mainstream colors and patterns work in deliciously offbeat ways, like this kimono and obi fashioned of the same fabric and tied in a nouveau-Edo style
This collection is an elegant and unexpected riff on kimono hime style (with just a hint of goth), made of unusual fabrics (lace and velvet!) and designs that incorporate inventive obi folding and details like edgy western corset lacing
Their traditional designs are also anything but, like this strikingly anti-seasonal, yet festive, furisode for Coming-of-age Day
They’re also pioneering easy-to-wear summer yukata, that are much faster to put on, because they dispense with obi-tying in favor of a wide, sleek belt that’s still in harmony with traditional yukata
Sakuten (Saku Laboratory) became famous for their obi with a cat “sleeping” on the obijime
But their collection is filled with entertaining tongue-in-cheek themes, like this unwrapped chocolate bar that’s attracting some uninvited guests (HA, don’t you love the tinfoil obiage?)
Even their “traditional” coordinations (like these dancing ghosts and demons) are freed from the traditional seasons, and celebrate holidays that are definitely off the beaten calendar
They even have some excellent “manly” designs, for kimono princes
If it’s tradition-busting motifs you’re after, RumiRock features bad girl rocker designs like snakes and their skins…
…and leopard-rarr
Even their summer wear would look right at home on a live house stage
All the RumiRock offerings are un their online shop and you can check out their newest designs on their @rumirockstore Instagram
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YOSHIKIMONO
But if it’s kimonos fit for rock royalty you’re craving, you can’t get more legit than this line designed by Yoshiki, the legendary drummer/pianist of X Japan
This year, he’s got a superhero obsession
But his heros and villians are elevated to high art when writ large all over a kimono
Skull season has never been more stylish
More eye candy is on the Yoshikimono website and you can catch a glimpse of the master himself amid the kimonos on the @yoshikimono official Instagram
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SHITO HISAYO
Shito Hisayo is also doing swoonworthy work for the modern princess, like these lavish Coming-of-age Day furisodes that break all the rules in the best possible way
Jotaro Saito may be the king of modern kimono designers, with his luxe runway shows in Tokyo and New York
His fabric designs and color combinations are untraditional—but timeless and not tied to any season—and they all do that classic kimono thing of looking fabulous on women of any age
Do you have a favorite designer who I left out? Tell me in the comments, because I never get tired of discovering new looks and this won’t be the last time you’ll read about modern kimono here!
And now the only thing left to say is, TAKE MY MONEY!
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Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!
5 thoughts on “Modern Kimonos To Die For: These Designers Are Giving An Old Artform New Edge”
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Jonelle, I’m not sure what lucky star led me to you, but I certainly thank her or him. Seeing your posting arrive is always a joyful event because I know it will be fascinating and world widening. Today’s is no exception. I am fascinated with kimonos and just received a beautiful one, and an obi, from a friend. I had given him a knockout red with gold one that we have been told is a wedding kimono…no obi. That is now hanging in his front hall as a piece of art! I will do my best to wear the gifted one. Thank you for digging so widely into these contemporary kimonos. Your selections are stunning and so inspiring. A true upbeat moment in covid times. Thank you! Stay well! And keep enlightening us.
Claudia, you are the kindest and sweetest to take the time to tell me you enjoyed this post! Thank you for taking such joy in life, and especially for loving so many things I also love. The world is a better place with you in it—you made my day!
Wowser. D❣️🍵
Sent from my iPhone
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So glad you enjoyed!
Jonelle, I’m not sure what lucky star led me to you, but I certainly thank her or him. Seeing your posting arrive is always a joyful event because I know it will be fascinating and world widening. Today’s is no exception. I am fascinated with kimonos and just received a beautiful one, and an obi, from a friend. I had given him a knockout red with gold one that we have been told is a wedding kimono…no obi. That is now hanging in his front hall as a piece of art! I will do my best to wear the gifted one. Thank you for digging so widely into these contemporary kimonos. Your selections are stunning and so inspiring. A true upbeat moment in covid times. Thank you! Stay well! And keep enlightening us.
Claudia Goodridge Palm Springs, CA
Sent from my iPad
>
Claudia, you are the kindest and sweetest to take the time to tell me you enjoyed this post! Thank you for taking such joy in life, and especially for loving so many things I also love. The world is a better place with you in it—you made my day!
So chic!!! I am totally in love with this mix and match 😍