Kimono Lists!

[Carmen]

Things that make my heart beat faster when I see them:

Shi-shi
Fabulous Yuzen in intricate designs
Taisho-era anything
Obi in unusual (but tasteful) colors (especially blue!)
Shibori (who doesn't love it?)
Rich Urushi Haori
Foxes
Moon & Rabbit theme
Chidori
Swallows
Turtle shell motif
Peonies
Kasuri textiles
Meisen in mod, retro patterns
Clouds and Mist
Heian Ladies
Beautifully crafted kumihimo ties for haori are especially thrillling.
Several bidders are vying for the same kimono, but you win it anyway without breaking the bank- most delightful!
Hand-painted obi with genuine gold threads-breathtaking!
Very old Hina dolls in immaculate condition
Nicely carved ranma

List of Hateful Things:

Orange, unless it's burnt
Pink/Mauve/Rose (I'm a red-head after all!)
Ebayers who won't deign to reply to a friendly email I find hateful in the extreme.
You find a beautiful kimono/obi with the perfect color and motif, nicely priced, but it is unforgivably stained. This is both hateful AND sad.
Obi with eagle theme (too masculine!)
Jinken (but silk blends are OK)
Your new (vintage) obi has been stored in a very hot place and the fabric is now brittle. So disappointing...
An ebay seller tells you the obi is Fukuro but it turns out to be Nagoya...then doesn't reply to your emails. Very distressing.
Ichiroya posts several new items you'd buy in a heartbeat, but someone else has snapped them all up...how hateful it is!


What can you add to these lists?

Cee.

[bawsin]

Ooh, this is a GOOD topic, Carmen! ;D

Things that make my heart beat faster

The smell of a vintage kimono, fresh from Ichiroya
Daruma motif (although I've only seen it in haori lining so far)
My other favourite motifs: momiji (Japanese maple), noshi, tachibana, and hemp design (asa-no-ha), when it's beautifully done
Urushi, when it's really gorgeous and over-the-top
Michiyuki with a scalloped neckline
Almost anything in emerald green or rich burgundy
Arabesque design in shibori
The feel of tsumugi
Old-fashioned long sleeves
When the vendor doesn't describe the lining, and it turns out to be unexpectedly, thrillingly beautiful
Bokashi (gradual shading of the colour)
Beautiful asymmetry in kimono design -- which, granted, isn't uncommon in wafuku, but it's still amazing to this Westerner!
Ichiro-san's wonderful newsletters
Discovering a michiyuki that can be worn well as a dress
Tanuki, especially when disguised as a monk
Tetsubin -- Japanese teapot
Finding furoshiki (and other smaller Japanese items) at my local Value Village
Getting to Ichiroya.com right after Wada-san has listed some new items, discovering that the one I absolutely love hasn't been bought yet, and buying it!
Really beautiful uchikake

Things I don't like so much
The cost of really beautiful uchikake
The cost of shipping uchikake
My credit-card bill, after I spot any of the above for sale and am unable to resist temptation
Modern kimono fabric, when it's garish or cartoonish
Realizing that the haori I just bought has sleeves that are embarrassingly short -- oops!
Polyester haori
Kawaii ... because sometimes cute is too cute
The baffling scarcity of the bat motif
The "Japanese Geisha Kimono Robe Haori" listings that are clogging up eBay these days -- yech
Realizing that the haori I want to buy is the single most popular one on eBay
The fact that I can't yet afford to buy a full "kimono kit"!

Julia

P.S. Decided to modify this list 8 months later as follows:
- Removed tsuru (crane) from my list of favourite motifs ... overexposure has removed the romance!
- Removed bingata ... no longer quite as charmed by it, for some reason.
- Removed "Orange, unless it's an accent colour" from the list of disliked things. I've developed a liking for some of the more brilliant colours (in moderation, at least): orange, acid pink, lime green...

Isn't it interesting how taste changes!!!

[Kiyoaki]

Things to celebrate.......!!! ;D

Finding 'sleepers' that no one else recognizes as being truly unusual or rare... and then successful bidding on it at the last minute.

Losing an item at auction, but then finding it's offered again and getting it the second time around.

Chancing on an item that is poorly photographed (or with no detail views at all) and hoping that the garment is complete ... then having your hunch confirmed when you get it.

Making mistakes... and learning from them.

Getting a seller banned from E-Bay after several people have complained about him. It once took a year to make it happen.

Buying 'ahead' of the market when prices are better because there's less competition.

Things to deplore.......!

Sellers who think condition problems aren't worth mentioning or that they're not important [ "kimono-king" for one].

Actually, the previous comment applies to anyone who tries to cheat and lie to get their own way. So that really applies to sellers and buyers the same.

The limited range of kimono styles available for men.

[theresa]

Really Great:

-Metting new friends from this site!
-All the compliments I get from the Hoari and kimono I've bought here!
-After disappointing experience with other sellers, being confident I can buy and recommend Ichiroya!

Really Awful-

-Being SO disappointed from buying kimono from another seller on ebay(but being able to send it to Kiki who could do something with it!)
-ALSO seeing something great here but it's SOLD immediately!!!
-

[Kiku]

Oh, boy! Now you've done it, Carmen!

Loves:

-Orange!!! I hate to say it, but it's my favorite color. Burnt, red, bright -- I love them all!
-Kiku/chrysanthemum and momiji/maple patterns. And both look great in orange!
-Nagoya obi, at least for now, because I can actually tie the darn things by myself.
-Really unusual kokeshi.
-Kimono Hime magazine!
-Very modern, abstract patterns.
-Dragonfly motif.
-Michiyuki of any length.
-Kyo yaki chawan.
-Being the first into an estate sale with a closet full of kimono and an estate liquidator who has no idea of their value.
-Shin hanga woodblock prints.
-All the nice Japanese people who put up with my bad Japanese. Domo arigatou gozaimasu!


Things that bug me:
-Being too old/married for furisode.
-Taking apart perfectly good kimono/haori/obi and making pillows out of them. The jury is still out on damaged ones though.
-Newbie bidders who keep pushing the price of an item up.
-Any bidder who seems to have a limitless income and leaves a high bid on everything.
-EMS shipping being so expensive, but SAL taking sooo long.
-Not being able to buy everything that strikes my fancy.

I'm sure that I will be adding to this list as I think of things, but that's it for now.

Cheers,
Kelly

[AndyZ]

Great topic!

WONDERFUL THINGS:

Uchikake without cranes (of couse, the cranes are wonderful too, but I long to see more designs without them)

Noh robes from the Lucy Truman Aldrich Collection. Truly superb.

Smudged eyebrows painted high on the forehead. Sorry, but I can't help it. I really do love these! I don't know what it says about me...

Old Hina dolls. (perhaps it's the eyebrows...)

Shoji sliding doors. Now that is STYLE.

Geisha songs and dance. Where can I buy good videos and CDs of these?!!!!

Geisha make-up and hairstyles. I don't think they look like dolls.

Mon. Their symplicity can be breathtaking.

The way Japanese artists can see the true beauty that can be found in ordinary things, and feeling they are good subjects for textile design. I've never seen fishing nets hanging up to dry on a western garment.

An antique kimono that is still stunning even though it has many stains and pulled threads.

A yogi that still has the padding intact.

An old farmers jacket that has been patched and patched again over decades, using odd scraps of kasuri etc.

The soft look and feel of shusu silk.

Kosode. How I'd love to own a good, Edo period kosode like the ones in museums!!!

Kaede's and Sue's kimonos in Kurosawa's RAN. Asaji's Noh style clothes in Throne of Blood. Kiku-san's crysanthemum kimono in Shogun

Shibori. It's just amazing.

Designs featuring bamboo. And snow.

A bride wearing Tsunokakushi. Beautiful. The fox bride wearing Wataboshi in the film Kurosawa's Dreams.


HATEFUL THINGS:

Being outbid on items and still mournfully thinking about them years later!

Bidding the very largest amount I could, by even asking relatives if they would let me borrow from them until my next paycheque arrives... and still finding someone gets the kimono for $5 more than I was able to bid.

Being given a modern heavy plaster statue of a sort of strange geisha that is really not to my taste but displaying it anyway to please the giver... then knocking it over (accidentally, honest!) and it crashes onto a porcelain cup with a design of lanterns... and picking both up to find not a mark on the statue but the cup is beyond repair...

Acid pink in a kimono design. It can spoil an otherwise beautiful garment.

A perfect, stainless new kimono that has a disappointing design or colour combination.

That the first eight Uchikake I ever saw (and yearned for without any hope of finding enough money to buy one) were all different but of a very distinct style. Finding, when I did save enough they were all gone and I should perhaps have thought of offering a down-payment -if only I could have known I'd eventually scrape enough money together. Then, finding that though I have searched for years on the internet, seeing literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of uchikake, I have never seen another of the style of those first eight... How I would like to find one. They were made in shades of tangerine, with a very loose type of embroidery worked in coloured metallic threads. The longest unsecured stitches I've seen. (you could see they were prone to snagging).

Feverishly trying to buy the best ever boys' kimono with a design of rabbits, only to find someone else is doing the same thing at the same time and just getting it into their basket first... Most hateful!

AndyZ

[Haruko]

Loves:

PEAC0CK MOTIFS! They're all so beautiful!

Bidding on an Ebay item and not checking it for a couple days and finding that you've won it!
Beautiful blue furisode
Pine
Very suttle flower designs with arabesque
Maru obi - they're just gorgeous!
Being able to buy a kimono, obi and obijime that all go together! (It's finding an obiage that's the trouble)
Getting the nice little cards and postcards from Ichiroya!
How elegant I feel when I wear kimono!
"Window" shopping and daydreaming about the kimono outfits I could own...

Don't like:
Having other things (like college tuition) that I should be spending my money on
Seeing a beautiful maru obi on ebay, in "mint condition", but the picture has it on a table under a vase!!!

[Meiji]

I haven't experienced actually wearing or owning a kimono yet but here is what I like:


- Darker kimono designs (Preferably dark blue or black)
- Nice old Japanese print designs, especially of dragons and various castles

- Shogi (Sliding doors)
- Peaceful gardens
- Meiji or Taisho era clothing
- Vintage kimono with cool designs
- Getting a good buy on kimonos or anything......


Dislikes:


- Kimono that are advertised to be in good condition but really they aren't

- Realizing that kimonos aren't cheap and are expensive.


That's about it so far. I'm kind of new to this thing.

[sg715]

Loves:

Uchikake with all-embroided pattern
Shuiro and Black ;D
Bokashi
Black Furisode (especially the 5-crested variety.)
Maiko-San's darari-obi
Wedding Katsura
Maru Obi with vivid colours
bira kanzashi
Noshi! (both to eat and on kimono)
Finding the kimono I thought I had lost for sale elsewhere
Finding great deals in Ebay listings
Kakae Obi
Shibori on a red juban
Furisode with exceptional colouring
Embroidery of any kind
Shiromuku where you can actually see the pattern
Ume blossom

Things I Loathe:
Seeing that the kimono you've lusted for has been sold!
Out of this world prices
Forgetting to bid on an auction
People who won't respond to questions (this mainly applies to Ebay)
Finding out that the most spectacular uchikake ever is...jinken! (Sorry, jinken-lovers out there)
Finding out that the nost spectacular kimono has a massive stain...that no one told you about
What a pain it is to store all of my kimono
That you can't find some accessories anywhere!
That kitsuke has to be so darn hard! (And they make it look to easy)
That I cannot read my Japanese kitsuke books

[Kiyoaki]

Although I've answered this topic earlier, some new thoughts came to mind after rereading everyone's replies.

EXCITING THINGS

Sha weave priest robe (in any color)
Every style of kesa known (not exclusively Japanese styles)
Accquiring an abbot's cap (they are scarce)
Almost anything in ro, sha, or ra

Plovers and shore breakers
Egrets and willow (on a black ground)
Bamboo or pine boughs dappled in snow
Autumn grasses covered in dew

Discovering the meaning of a design, when no one else does
Finding kimono large enough to fit correctly
Finding a unique decorative theme (or one rarely used)
A well drawn horse
Centainly shibori (but can't find juban in my size)
Mokume shibori

THINGS TO IGNORE

Badly torn or stained garments
Garments that aren't long or big enough
Poorly drawn human faces
Sterotypical themes and stylized rendering that depart from the original so far that you can't be certain what it meant to be

Kiyoaki

[HikaruNoGo]

I'm late, but better than never!

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT KIMONO:

1) The smell of vintage silk. Yes, I SMELL my kimono! I pass by and I just have to open a fold of my kimono on the bed and take a whiff.

2) Bokashi. I fell in love with an uchikake that had a gorgeous color combination and learned quite a lot about kimono and dyeing that day.

3) iro- uchikake. I love color- lots of it. The more the better. I collect mainly uchikake and each has tons of color. Designer Kansai Yamamoto and Hane Mori have the most exquisite pieces I have ever seen. I'm still searching high and low for a Hanae Mori uchikake.

4) embroidery. I love the fine details. I totally appreciate a piece that has intricate emboidery that I can stare at for hours.

5) geisha/ maiko. The life of geisha and maiko have become a serious hobby for me. I am fascinated with their elaborate kimono and wigs and the ritual that goes with it. The kimono transition from maiko to geisha is interesting. I didn't know how much in weight a maiko wears until I read it. Also, the beautful artwork that they wear is mind blowing, they are like walking exhibits.

6) ningyou (Japanese dolls). I recently started collecting vintage Japanese dolls mailny because of their kimono. I love how these dolls are decked out in miniature kimono and accessories!

7) wearing kimono. I'm still not a pro at wearing kimono, but I try. Wearing them makes me feel feminine and unique. It's also a great topic starter to share with friends and strangers.

8) Culture and Education. Learning about kimono and its history opened the doors to other things Japanese. Everything from temples, sushi, Shinto, tea ceremony, and samurai interests me. I'm seriously considering studying Japanese culture as a hobby when I go off to grad school!


WHAT IRKS ME:

1) The lack of supply. If it weren't for wonderful places like ebay and Ichiroya, I would never have been introduced to the wonderful world of kimono!

2) The ignorance. I hate it when people mix up cultures. Headings on ebay like, "CHINESE vintage red kimono" Or when people wear their kimono 'wrong.'

3) No place to display my goods. I have a good collection of uchikake, obi, and a gorgeous furisode that I can't show off because I have no room to display them. What I do for now is to lay one uchikake out on my bed to see it. Then I fold it up carefully and bring out another.

4) No one to dress up with. I don't know of anyone else in my area who is interested or has any kimono. I always wanted to have a kimono party!

5) Expensive! All my hobbies are expensive, especially this one! I have so much debt. But no regrets!!

[Flock]

I'm late for this one! but I love Sei Shonagon style lists.
Delightful things
A ring on the doorbell early in the morning turning out to be a parcel containing a crisp clean kimono
The smell of old silk (not the only one to list this)
Abstract hemp pattern
Tsumugi silk
Taisho romance kimono designs
Meisen and chirimen silk
Heian ladys eyebrows!
Geta, okobo, zori.. and pretty much any traditional japanese shoes
Traditional tabi socks.. Oh how delicate!
Summer Ro silk kimono in mute tones - so chic!
Kimono worn in an avant garde Kimono Hime way
Wafuku graduation ensembles
Interesting and rare kimono finds online
Simple striped obi
-there is so much more but I would bore everyone!-
Hateful things
Having little money to fund my kimono addiction
Not living in japan
No kimono community in Yorkshire - How lonely!
Being outbid on kimono on ebay after daydreaming about wearing it with say.. a certain obi, haneri or haori that it could have been made to complement!
People who thinks geisha are prostitutes/common dancing girls - how ignorant!
Chinese style dragons that look feirce and ugly
Using obi as table runners! this sick and wrong in my mind
Generally mutilating kimono and turning them into cushions and bedcovers is terrible.
Garish bingata
Hybrid highstreet fashion made to look 'oriental'.. kimono sleeves here, mandarin collar there.. corset round the middle.. cheap and nasty!
People who say the tradition of wearing kimono is vanishing.. Not true!!!!

That's all I can come up with for now without being a bore.. Cheers to Carmen for starting this topic (albeit 2 years ago)
Flock