Wednesday 12 August 2009

Japanese Art Festival Richmond : everybody arrives for the great kimono show

Finally : the kimono show post. Do a leftclick on the pictures to get a larger view.

A bit later on the first day of the Festival , April turned up, everybody got into kimono , so I made them all pose !

Everyone getting ready for the group pose :

They're ready ! From left to right : Isla, Hong, Chantal and April.
The kimono showing was held in the main hall. Thank God I photographed it , it was all over in under 15 minutes!
April walked on stage first with Chantal and Isla, introducing everybody.
Commenting on their kimonos for the public.
Akemi comes on , telling us she's dressed up her friends in some rare and expensive kimonos from her collection.
Akemi's friend n° 1Akemi's friend n° 2View from the back : the red and yellow bow is a clip-on bow ( they have that ??!) , the right is a genuine folded one.

Akemi's friend n° 3 : this furisode (long sleeved) is worn only by unmarried women (Aha! Must remember that when I visit Japan ;)
The "Aaaaaah, she's so kawaii !" moment : the girl from the Chibi stand.

" Thank you everybody ! " ( I really need a bigger flash)
Day 2 : Kelly visits the stand .
(Chantal , if you want the RAWS , use the email me Form on my blog site )

6 comments:

kirin said...

Furisode is only worn by women who become 20 (the age considered adult in Japan) on Seijin-no-hi (=become an adult day)these days. We may have worn it in other occasions, too but it is very rare for young Japanese girls to wear Kimono except the Seijin-no-hi and New Year's Day, you barely have chances to see them in Kimono when you are in Japan any other seasons but these events. Seijin-no-hi and New Year's Day are both in January, so if you stay here the first 2 weeks in Jan. you may be able to see both. :D

Walter said...

Hello , Kirin. Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you for telling me. The speaker at the show said it was only worn by unmarried women.
Isn't it rather cold in January , to wear a kimono ?
Or is it a much warmer dress than it seems ?

Marly said...

This is very interesting to know. My friend at work just had her Japanese wedding May this year. She wore Kimono :)

Marly

Walter said...

Hello Marly. Welcome!
As you can gather from my posts, the place to visit if you want to know more about kimonos is Priscilla's place : kimono-daisuki.blogspot.com (one of the blogs I follow ).

shigatsuhana said...

Great pictures Walter! Thanks for posting them :)

Walter said...

Welcome, April! It's a pity I haven't been able to visit more Japanese events in England this year. I probably won't go to the October MCM Expo either.
But who knows; there's always next year. And I'll take the camera along, of course.
Keep on blogging !