I was influenced by my high-school friend first. Our taste was the same. We liked history, kimono, etc. We went to summer festivals in yukata together, and wore hakama at our graduation ceremony together.
After graduating, we went to buy polyester kimono together. We searched the information about what we needed to buy on the internet because we did not have people around who could teach us. This friend encouraged me to step up to kimono from yukata. I could not have done it alone, without her. We often went out in kimono together after we started to work.
I learned for three months in a kimono school but it gave me bad memories. I learned some things from the teacher and from kimono sellers. Before I went there, I just enjoyed my kimono life in my own style but after I went there, I started to care how my style looked from other people’s viewpoint. I was often told “it is not your size,” “it is out of the fashion,” and they tried to make me buy new kimono. I always got new ideas when I was surrounding by co-workers or customers who wore kimono during my year at the second hand kimono shop. I got a lot of advice, like how to wear beautifully kimono that are not my size. I learnt there to enjoy wearing what I like, and it was opposite to the kimono school‘s policy which was like “you have to this” or “for that, you have to buy this.”