Wearing Kimono for Extended Period

[starseryn]

Hi, I'm kind of embarrassed to ask about this. However, I must because my future mother-in-law needs help. For my wedding, 7 women are dressing up in traditional kimono. She asked me this because she has a hip problem and may need to take things into consideration during the time she's wearing the kimono. She asked how one goes about using the restroom while wearing a kimono. Does anyone have any tips for this. Once again I apologize as I know this is an odd subject. I can only pay to have the people helping us dress there for the first few hours, but the event lasts from 9am to 4pm and I'm sure they will come across a problem if I don't figure out what to tell them now. Any help whatsoever would be of great assistance to me.

[Ume]

^_^ I do not think you need to apologize or be embarrassed, we all have this problem. Going to the rest room isn't easy in kimono.
This is what I tend to do: most of the time I flip all layers so I can hold them and then pull them all up, so that the susojoke is on top, then wiggle them up. Keep the susojoke always on top; this would protect your kimono.
If you want to be more secure, pin (with kitsuke clips) or tie (with koshihimo) your sleeves out of the way, then hike up your skirts (susojoke on top again) and tie with yet another koshihimo. This should make you save.
When washing your hands, be extra careful no water and soap will reach your kimono. I use a big napkin or towel to protect my kimono from accidents....

I hope this helps, I know my explanation was not very clear, it's really hard to do with out pictures ^_^ but I hope you understand.

[starseryn]

Thank you so very much! I think what you said will definitely help the matter. I will relay to all the women involved and hope for the best.

[Flock]

as ume says it really is a crucial thing to know.. I know a japanese site with some pictures:
www4.ocn.ne.jp/~tomasan/kimonotpo/wc.html even if you can't understand it it does give a general idea!
I'd reccomend running it through a translator.

[bawsin]

Thanks for the link, Flock. Critically important information for all us ladies to have

Here is the webpage as run through the @nifty online translator:
tinyurl.com/43ftm

Also, for those who haven't discovered it yet, here's the URL of the @nifty webpage for Japanese-English (or English-Japanese) translation:
www.nifty.com/globalgate

To translate a webpage:

[/li][li] Enter the URL in the "URL" field.
[/li][li] Select the second option from the drop-down menu.
[/li][li] Click the button immediately to the right of the drop-down menu.

The translated webpage will open in a second window.

(The second block of fields on this webpage allows you to translate blocks of text. I don't use this option so much...)

bawsin