My Kimono Story: I’m making something of Japanese Vintage Kimono Fabric in the Forest in Quebec, Canada
This is how I started my small business
Kimono is a traditional garment that has been worn in Japan for centuries. It was worn not only for ceremonial occasions such as weddings and funerals, but also for everyday wear. The Japanese word “kimono” itself means “something to wear”.
However, with modernisation, western culture began to be imported more and more, and people gradually began to wear kimonos less and less. For various reasons, such as the fact that western clothes were easier to move in, easier to put on and take off, easier to work in, or more fashionable at the time, the kimono gradually disappeared from everyday Japanese life.
Even when I was a child, I had the opportunity to wear a kimono during special ceremonies, but other than that, I rarely had the chance to wear a kimono in my daily life. However, I myself have been attracted to kimonos since I was young and would sometimes force myself to wear a kimono on a date with my boyfriend and go out on the town.
Today, kimonos are rarely worn in everyday life, but in my grandmother’s and mother’s time kimonos were still worn on a daily basis. My grandmother was a traditional Japanese harp (Koto) teacher, so there were many kimonos in our house, which she used to wear in her lessons. After my grandma past away, my mother was overwhelmed with kimonos from my grandfather and grandmother remained in the house. Because they were too beautiful to throw away, my mother decided to put them away in the wardrobe for the time being.
I like kimono, so I would like to wear them if possible, but unfortunately my grandmother’s and mother’s kimonos were too small for me to wear.
One day, my mother, who was fed up with kimonos taking too much space in the house, tried to sell old kimonos away. There are several second-hand kimono buyers in Japan, and she got a quote from them. However, my mother was disappointed to find that the price was so low. Most kimonos are made of silk. People in the past carefully made silk threads and wove them into fabric, which is then made into kimono by kimono dressmakers. Kimono made by hand by many people is normally very expensive. My mother was very saddened by the fact that they were no longer valuable, and told me that I could take it back to Canada, if I liked.
Although those kimonos were too small for me to wear, but as I myself love kimono fabrics and cloth, I thought that I could use them for something. Furthermore, I didn’t want my mother to threw them away. I didn’t want her to be stressed out with them either, even if she kept them. So I put my grandmother’s and mother’s kimonos in my suitcase and brought them back to Canada.
The old Japanese kimonos ended up being settled in my home in the woods in Canada. However, I was so busy with other things, such as work and gardening that I couldn’t do anything with the kimonos right away.
In the summer of 2024, when I had a bit of a break from work, something reminded me of my grandmother’s kimonos. I pull them out from my wardrobe and unfolded them one by one to look at them. They were in a size I couldn’t wear, but they were in very good condition. Some had a few stains and frayed edges, but most were in good enough condition that I could have worn them right away if they had been in my size. Some of the kimonos even had never been worn.
However, even if it fits, it is not very practical to wear a Japanese kimono in a Canadian forest. Even if you wanted to dress up, there are no people around here. There are a lot of animals such as deer, squirrels and foxes, though. Because of this environment, I don’t feel like dressing up in a kimono. However, I thought that if I could convert this kimono into a dress, for example, it would surely be a comfortable outfit. Most kimonos are made of natural materials such as silk or cotton; they are light, strong, warm and static-free. Above all, they have very soft and smooth texture, so I thought that if I could remake them into comfortable, casual clothes, I would want to wear them every day.
That is how I started ‘Kimono Remake’.
Kimono remaking is a very time-consuming process.
First, the kimono has to be unstitched into plain fabric. Because old kimonos were carefully sewn by hand, it takes a lot of time to unstitch these threads. After all the threads have been removed, the kimono is gently washed by hand in cold water. As the garment is made of silk, it cannot be washed in a washing machine, and washing it in warm water can cause shrinkage and colour fading. Wash by hand gently and carefully, and then, dry in the shade. Silk fabrics are also sensitive to sunlight, so when drying them they should also be dried in the shade. Then, when the garment is half-dried, it is ironed to stretch it nicely.
After all the above work, finally, I can start the process of making clothes.
Once I decided what kind of garment I am going to make, I carefully place the pattern onto the kimono fabric in order to let the beautiful kimono pattern to be seen most effectively. Depending on the type of silk, there are some kimonos which have a relatively firm texture, but most kimonos are soft, thin and delicate, so it is difficult to cut them straight without the utmost care during the cutting process.
When the cutting is finished, I start the sewing process. Sewing is not straightforward either. This is because silk fabrics are soft, slippery and thin, and if you try to sew them quickly with a sewing machine, the seams can quickly slip out of place. Therefore, when handling delicate materials, I sew them temporarily by hand before sewing them with a sewing machine.
I also do not use a overlock or zigzag stitch for edge finishing. I try to avoid sewing machine seams from the front of the finished garment as much as possible. Kimonos are originally made only by hand-stitching, but even those hand-stitched seams cannot be seen from the front or the back. Therefore, when I make clothes from kimonos, I sew them in such a way that the seams are not visible from the front as much as possible. For this reason, I often finish the seam allowance by hand sewing.
In this way, an outfit made from an old kimono is completed. The amount of cloth I can get from unstitching one kimono is more or less same every time. After the garment has been made, there is usually some cloth left over. I used it as much as possible to make something that you can use in everyday life ,for example, bags, pouches, hair accessories, placemats, coasters and many other things out of kimono fabric.
Shortly, My house is filled with ‘kawaii (cute)’ things made of kimono fabric. Then, I started selling my creations because I wanted people who liked the costumes and accessories I made in this way to be able to use them.
There are many Japanese people who, like my family, have trouble dealing with the kimonos left behind by their grandparents and parents. Kimono is beautiful and has a traditional historical background, but unfortunately they do not fit into the lives of Japanese people today. For this reason, many kimono is traded cheaply or disposed of. I breathe new life into these kimono and make something from it with the hope that kimono will be loved by someone and used again for a long time again.
