INFLUENCES影響
When I was a child, I lived in Kyushu, near a district of pubs and drinking places. I was always in awe of the hostess or bar owner women’s cool kimono wearing style, the way that they wore kimono pulled down at the back of the neck. They looked so stylish. In the summer, my grandmother dressed me in yukata. She always dressed me like a young girl, with the collar close around my neck and a short hem. But I wanted to wear my yukata in a cool and sexy way like the hostess or bar owners, so I decided that I would learn to dress myself as soon as I could. I could get dressed by myself in my late teens, and I wore yukata with a longer hem and with my collar pulled down at the back of my neck in a more adult fashion. At that time, some girls liked to wear it falling off their shoulders in a very sloppy way, but I never liked that kind of strange style. I just wanted to wear it properly but in a stylish way. Two years ago, when I began to dress in kimono, and my knowledge increased,
I began to better understand the background of the world of the novels of Junichiro Tanizaki which I had read in the past and which contain detailed descriptions of kimono. I began to understand about different types and qualities of the kimono of the characters in the novels, and also about the importance of seasonality. I love kimono from the world that he wrote about, from the Taisho era to early Showa era but the real antique kimono are too small for me to wear, so I try to look for new kimono in a similar style. I like the sense of the people of those eras; they combined colours and patterns in really surprising ways. It’s seems fresh and individualistic. I wish I could wear my kimono that that.