Nothing radiates high class elegance and exotic worldly beauty like a silk kimono. Once outlawed in Japan, the world is learning to embrace this traditional garment.
In ancient and feudal Japan, a silk kimono was a prized possession, worn by both men and women alike. The kimono itself is a long, straight, flowing robe with wide sleeves cut into a T-shaped pattern. Traditionally made from silk, high-quality kimonos were always made by hand by skilled weavers using a single bolt of cloth. Much like many traditions in Japan, such as sword making or tea serving, kimono sewing was elevated to a meditative art form, and treated with respect.
Dressing in your kimono was an equally regimented activity. To begin, you always must wrap the left side of the cloth over yourself first, and then the right. When tucked in tightly, the kimono would then be lightly folded to fit properly. Once adjusted, you would then take the sash (the “obi”) and tie it around the kimono- always knotting it tightly in the back.
In traditional Japanese society, a kimono was worn for a number of different occasions, both formal and informal. However, the solemnity or importance of the event dictated what type of kimono you would wear. For instance, consider the patterning on the garment. A kimono acquired its pattern either through dyeing or through weaving. Predictably repeating patterns, whether woven or dyed, were considered to be for informal occasions. For more formal events, you would wear a kimono with a large, free-form design dyed and painted onto the fabric.
Aside from patterns, one large difference in kimonos is their sleeves, especially in women’s kimonos. For a normal robe worn in daily activities, your kimono’s sleeves should fall to approximately your wrists when your arms are hanging down. However, there are some variations on this, such as the furisode robe. This was a type of kimono designed to be worn by young, unmarried women, and featured sleeves that hung all the way down to the floor.
Nowadays in Japan, traditional kimonos are more likely to be worn by women than by men, and both only tend to wear the robe for very special or extremely formal and traditional occasions. In fact, the kimono was actually forcibly pushed out of Japanese fashion during World War II, when in 1940 the government dictated a national uniform that more closely resembled western wear. After the war, the occupying American presence extended to the fashion world as well, and western suits quickly dominated the marketplace.
However, the beauty, comfort and elegance of a silk kimono stood the test of time, and they are finding their way back into the fashion world these days. Whether shortened and modified to be worn as t-shirts or dressed, or whether used more traditionally as a beautiful gown, the silk kimono is an increasingly popular choice for today’s fashionable dresser.