​PASSIONEER

Unfolded. Laid flat. Time taken to think. Whose shoulders will it rest upon next? In the 2010s, I had my mother's furisode from the 1950s re-dyed for my daughter's coming-of-age ceremony. I chose the color of the deepest ocean floor. Beneath that depth, only the gold leaf remained visible — rising to the surface like light from another world. The mysterious beauty seemed to whisper of my daughter's unknown future, stirring both anxiety and wonder. And now, that re-dyed furiso

My mother's coming-of-age ceremony. The white palace shimmered with hand-applied gold leaf — Baroque grandeur woven into silk. My mother's coming-of-age ceremony photograph. In those days, the kimono world was swept up in Rococo and Baroque influences. The spirit of postwar Japan — catch up, surpass — poured itself into design. An overwhelming longing for the West made its way into silk. My mother's furisode was white, painted with Entasis columns and a palace in vivid color

The crepe texture of ichikoshi chirimen created by strongly twisted silk yarns. Fashion designers around the world often use silk crepe. However, traditional Japanese chirimen silk is almost never used in global fashion. Why is that? The answer begins with the structure of kimono fabric . Kimono cloth is woven as a tanmono — a narrow bolt of fabric measuring about 38 centimeters in width . This width already makes it difficult to meet the needs of modern fashion design. Gar