Two years ago was my first year attending a graphic design school @ Amsterdam. I was however slightly disappointed in how little the holidays were celebrated. At a creative art school I had expected to have at least some people dressing up for Halloween. Even if Halloween isn't really celebrated in Holland, its popular enough to dress up for parties.  >v<

So this year (my senior year) I decided to try something for a bit. I asked around my classmates if they'd be up for dressing up during Halloween and after I had thought to get enough interest, I made a "leaflet" and left it on our class' facebook-page. Even though there seemed to be a lot of interest, and I got great reactions to the leaflet-thing... In the end I think there were about 5 people _really_ dressed up yesterday. But it was definitely a start! :)

I myself decided to go in kimono. Its been on my list for a while now to go to school in kimono, especially on a "regular" day.  :)  It was quite difficult though because I went to bed at 2 AM and woke up at 6:45 AM. Presentation-day... 

I received mixed reactions. Most of them were positive ones, but I was caught quite off guard when a group of people walked by and shouted back at me: "Nihaoo! Hahahahah" in a condescending way. I guess its to be expected, but from artsy people I had hoped otherwise.
A fun thing was about 15 people coming in my classroom to view what I was wearing. Felt like a compliment. : D

I went with an all-season kimono (i believe?) and a late summer/fall-season obi. It's quite a comfy outfit but still ended up a bit messy. I went with my only haori and a big fuzzy scarf.

WARNING Nearly all photos are of terrible quality because they were taken with my phone. Therefor they also have a high dosis of "camwhore"-ness. But I really wanted to take pictures of today. Sorry! With my morning tea, surprised I got even got dressed dressed at all.



In the elevator, liking the look with my big scarf.



At school with Stephanie  :P



We had a bunny, Izabella. : D



And a pirate, Deborah. : D



In front of Amsterdam central station. (For those who've been there, yes, this is a terrible, horrible picture.)



In the end I was really happy I did this. Even if it was nerve-wrecking and tiring in combination with presentation-day. The best compliment of the day was when a teacher took me off-guard and said; "You should wear it more often." "Hmm, What?" "This, kimono, it looks really good on you!"  So now I'm thinking of other occasions to wear kimono to school.  :oops:

I hope I'll have extended my collection a bit by then though, so I can specify my outfit a bit more.  :ermum


Thanks for reading, hehe, byebye~ ^^

Paris!

So instead of buying a heap of kimono with the money I earned during my internship, I decided to go to Paris. But the kimono/Japanese vibe never really left! I'll spare you the 378 pictures I took all throughout the trip, but I found these wonderful prints!

I thought it might be nice to share them here. ^^~

And for those who like Disney, how do you like this pin as an obidome?

I am way in love with the first print, the Art Nouveau style mixed with the japanese theme is just so charming. Has anyone ever come across prints like this? If so please share them, i'm curious! :)

They had amazing shops in Paris! With all kinds of prints ranging from cars, to Audrey Hepburn, to babies and old woodblock prints!

My friend whom went to Paris with me.

If anybody knows where else I could find this style of prints please let me know!

Amy

After a long day in Disney. =w=

PS: Obligatory photo of Le Tour Eiffel. :D

Getting back in the game!

So.. it's been a while.. -ghmghm three months, ghmghm-


But I knew better blogtimes would come. And, uhm yeah, what better to do than write, when you're ill and at home, right?


Monday I had to go for a check-up doctors-appointment, so I had the afternoon off. Luckily the hospital is a 5 minute walk from my home, and everything was perfect. This means I had most of the afternoon to enjoy for myself. Only partly fun though- because I've also been terribly ill since then.

I promised myself I'd try to do some kitsuke with a new kimono that I got a few weeks ago from Shinei. It was also my first time tying my own otaiko with a regular nagoya obi.... I currently have a huge cold, and I've never been SO tired after kitsuke.

 

I'm actually quite satisfied with the otaiko. I do get the feeling it's a bit off in the picture, though I swear it was in the deadcenter! I spent extra time making sure it was. Hmmgmmh. @_@

I'm growing really fond of this kimono already- I can't wait to wear it outside!
That'll be all for today~!

Amy

 

Finally, i got myself some new shoes. I've been dying to get myself some type of boot for quite a long time now- but I could never find something that appealed to my taste. But here they are, my brand-new, no heel, with a touch of victorian/horsebackriding style, not too boyish nor girly, suede, brown, laced knee-high boots. Which I can also wear under my hakama when wearing kimono. They also gave me extra laces with them which give them a classier look, so I'm really happy. I'm looking forward to seeing how they look with my hakama.

 I also tried on the ro kimono set i put together in my last blog-entry. I hadn't tried it on before so i was quite excited. Sadly, I soon noticed how difficult it was to make an ohashori- and how strange my sleeves looked. I'd never measured it before, but it turns out to be only 150cm long. Being 175cm tall is not ideal with small kimono. I tried it on regardless- but I think I'm going to sell or give away the kimono. It wouldn't be right to keep it in the closet without wearing it. It's a little sad though, because I finally found a ro kimono the i liked. You can see the koshihimo peep out in one of the photo's, I think i had 1cm max for an ohashori and nothing would stay right, so it all looks really sloppy.

I was glad to finally wear my home-made tsuke obi though!

Looking forward to summer

This is my first time writing a blog, so please don't be too hard on me!

It's a new year and everybody is talking about how this is going to be their year. I really can't help but feel the same way, it kind of feels like I'm getting a new chance to do everything better this time 'round. And so with this thought in mind I decided to start the year with a few things I want to improve on.

For starters, a friend of mine (Linda) helped me get acquaintanced with a sewing machine. We went over to IKEA to get some wonderful fabric and together we put a tsuke-obi together. (Though I must say she did most -if not all- the work.) I picked a graphic black-and-white print on quite sturdy fabric. I had a difficult time imagining what the finished product would look like but Linda took all the time I needed to make up my mind. Which was a pretty long time.. She told me she could make such an obi in about and around 3 hours, but we actually took all day to make mine. In the end I'm very excited about how it looks- it also really feels like my style.

Regardless of the fact that I barely touched the machine, it has really gotten me enthusiastic on sewing. I am now actually thinking of getting myself a sewing machine and wherever i see fabric, i can see a wonderful kimono or obi coming out. 

I thought it would be a nice idea to put together an coordination for my new-made obi, since I would also like to improve my kitsuke this year and to increase my coordination-skills. I remembered a beautifully dark purple-brown-red ro komon (for those who don't know kimono, it's a casual summer kimono) i bought last summer and hadn't worn yet. It has a very charming flower pattern which is visible because of the open type of weaving. I tried it together with my new obi and some summer accersoires and I must say I love it. I can't wait till it's summer to wear this- so maybe I'll try it out this weekend at home.

I still have to figure out how to post images next to each other, or something neater-looking.

And that's all for today, I hoped my first time blogging wasn't all too bad! Thank you for reading.

 

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Amy and on this small space on the internet I'll be sharing my love for kimono/japanese cultural related things and other stuff I come by in everyday life.

I hope you will enjoy reading and thank you for visiting my blog!