American Duchess now has Regency boots!

Ok, regency is probably one of my favourite time periods in western fashion. And now there's regency boots from the glorious American Duchess! Yay!

They are right now in pre-order, but will soon be stocked up.

Nankeen boots were an early 19th century fabric walking boots with adjustable lacing closure. Just like boots of old, our Nankeens have soft toes (no toe caps), leather soles, stitched eyelets, and bound edges.
The name "Nankeen" comes from the variety of cotton used to make these boots, originally a pale buff-colored cloth manufactured in Nanjing, China. Shortly after its rise in popularity, Nankeen cloth was "knocked off" in Europe, and made of just ordinary cotton dyed to the characteristic khaki color. Ironically, our modern Nankeen cloth is, in fact, made in China, which is entirely historically accurate!

They are also period accurate. Don't believe me? Check her resource material.

So what was in my Yamatoku Bundle of Doom

Blue green haori with kiku embroidery. Very nice and has a pretty animal patterned lining. 

 Next one is an unmade obi. The base is navy blue, which is not shown properly in the image.

 This nagoya is very small. I mean, really small! I'm not sure if I can wear this properly because of the lenght. Also the pattern runs a bit funny, so I'm in the belief that this has been a kimono once and has been remade into an obi.

Grey patterned obi. Might be a fukuro. I still need to measure it.

 Red and black komon. Quite small, needs adjusting for comfortable wear, but for hime style it's working.

Men's juban with tiger and dragon pattern. I offered this to fiancé but he said he was not impressed with the pattern. If this was women's, I'd wear it to bits.

 Pink komon. Has a shiny quality to it. Fit is ok.

 Girl's furisode. I'm guessing age 13 as it's quite long and does not have tucks. Has stains, but othervice in wearable condition.

 Another komon. I was not impressed with this one, might put it up for trade.

 This lightweight summer komon was hiding under another kimono and I fell head over heels for it. Rather short, but I'm in love.

A very busy patterned komon. It was not easy to look at this as I have a headache. Quite new as it has modern clothing tag attached. Which is funny as the kimono in itself is very short. I might have to take a peak into the lining to see if there's fabric to add more lenght.

So that was my 10 haul. I'm quite happy with my catch... Now to find time for wearing....

Just a head up!

The Yamatoku 10-pack arrived. Pictures following an due time.

The package contained:
1 men's juban
3 obis
1 young girl's furisode/cho-furisode (I only went through the box quickly so I can't say for sure yet)
1 haori
5 komon

So my 10 pack actually had 11 items in it!

Yamatoku 20 Bundle of Doom

I was supposed to get my 10 pack on Friday, but the delivery man tried to deliver it to the wrong door and since my neighbour was not home, it was claimed "recipient not home" and was shipped back to Tampere. I should get that tomorrow.

In the meantime, I realized that I have not updated my 20 pack haul in here. Boo for me. I got to keep 15 as I sent 6 (yup, there was 21 items in my pack) to a fellow IGer, Miravisu.

A bingata haori that fits nicely! I've been waiting to get myself a good haori and now I have it!

Black'n'white hitoe komon. It has patterns of sake bottles, so this will be my choise for Midsummer Festival. (Even though I'm a teatotaller).

This wine red komon has a color fade on the front hem, but it's not too noticable. Fit is a bit too small.

My breath was knocked off when I pulled this houmongi out of the pile. It's stunning and breathtaking and I didn't notice flaws (I might have to look again). It's lovely pearl/dove grey with gold and silver embroidery on both shoulders and hem.

Grandma's couch from the 70's. It's an orange based hitoe komon that still oddly pleases my eyes for some reason... I just have no idea what I should pair with it... I keep seeing green obi, but I'm not sure...

This kimono was surprisingly heavy, but then I realized that the entire hem was covered with gold thread embroidery. It has a very Marimekko like feel to it. It's a houmongi.

Possible taisho era komon with vermillion lining. The image does not do justice to the fact that that lining is RED. I mean the true, raw, passionate RED.

Peach colored komon. I wasn't sure at first if this was a houmongi or komon, but it has more "komon" qualities than houmongi, so I'm going to go with a more festive komon.

Pink, blue and brown with white accents komon that I believe has belonged to a younger girl, maybe age 15. It's lenght is ok, but it's really tiny widht wise. Also the colors feel more younger girl to me.

Flowery hitoe komon. Fit is ok. This didn't strike me, but I still like it.

Another possibly taisho era komon. There are spots on this one, but not too bad. Fit is too small. Has vermillion lining in the sleeves, so part of the lining might have been changed at some point.

Apricot colored flowery komon.  I like it. It's  fancy, it fits. I just love this share of orange.

An embroidered fukuro obi. I still need to measure and inspect this more carefully wether to claim this fukuro or bridal maru. On the first look it looks more fukuro.

Another haori! This one is lined and needs adjusting before it fits nicely, but I love it.

I'll update images of the 10 pack haul later this week. Hopefully tomorrow the delivery man finds the correct door.

Handmade plaid komon

About a year ago I bought the Yumi Yamamoto book Making Casual Kimono & Yukata.

Which is a lovely book by itself. There were two kimonos that caught my eye immediately while going through the book:

So when I found a green and blue plaid patterned fabric at the local fabric store, I grabbed it. Here's the result:

 I still need to find time to actually wear this, but I'm happy to say that for a person who's 160 tall, the pattern in the book does not need altering to fit. Althought the around hip size could have been a tad bit smaller, but since it's still in comfortable fit zone it's ok.