History of Traditional Garments

This page is our special featured page to introduce Traditional Japanese garments and its History.

All our garments are pre-loved and looked after by Japnese people for many years within their history. We hand pick each ones and are different from each other.

Kimono(きもの,着物) is a traditional Japanese garment. The word "kimono", which actually means a "thing to wear" has come to denote these full-length robes. Kimono has T-shaped, straight-lined robes worn so that the hem falls to the ankle, with attached collars and long wide sleeve and wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial) and are secured by a sash called an obi which is tied at the back.

The kimono is always worn for important festivals or formal occasions. It is a formal style of clothing associated with politeness and good manners.

Today, Kimono is most commonly worn by women, particularly 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 ceremony, another very special or very formal occasion.

The Haori (羽織) is a traditional Japanese Kimono like sort of hip-or thigh-length jacket. Haori is not worn like the Kimono but is worn open or kept closed by a string that connects the lapels.

Women's Haori Jacket

Juban

Juban(じゅばん,襦袢) is an undergarment. It typically has the same basic shape as a kimono, and when worn properly the collar and part of the back of the sleeves will show.. A juban is a kimono-shaped piece of clothing you wear under kimono. Juban is still used today under kimono. The two basic styles of juban are one-piece juban, which looks the most like kimono and maybe a touch shorter than the kimono they're worn under, and two-piece juban, which consists of a separate top and wrap-around skirt bottom.

Yukata

Yukata (ゆかた,浴衣) were traditionally made of indigo-dyed cotton and commonly tie-dyed (Shibori) with floral patterns but today a wide variety of colors and designs are available. A child may wear a multicolored print and a young woman may wear a floral print, while an older woman would confine herself to a traditional dark blue with geometric pattern, Men wears solid dark colors. Yukata are commonly worn during Summer and many places in Japanese hotels and Ryokan such as traditional accommodation places.

Obi

Obi (おび, 帯 )is a sash for traditional Japanese dress Kimono.

The obi for men's kimono is rather narrow, 10 centimeters (3.9 in) wide at most, but a woman's formal obi can be 30 centimeters (12 in) wide and more than 4 meters (13 ft) long. Nowadays, a woman's wide and decorative obi does not keep the kimono closed; this is done by different undersashes and ribbons worn underneath the obi. The obi itself often requires the use of stiffeners and ribbons for the definition of shape and decoration.