À la recherche du temps perdu— Fabric of Time

The same kimono, reborn. Re-dyed, resewn — the butterflies from my seventh year still dancing.

My Shichi-Go-San. This white kimono would one day be reborn as deep purple. The butterfly motif, carried forward into its next life.

It is widely known that KIMONO — Japanese traditional clothing — is made to be remade.

The needles used in Japanese sewing are exceptionally fine. Unlike the holes left by a sewing machine, the needle's path disappears once the fabric is unstitched and washed. The cloth returns to its original state as a bolt of fabric — tanmono — ready to be made into something new.

Kimono is, in this way, a profoundly sustainable garment.

Extra fabric is folded and tucked inside the seams — uchinage — so the length can be let out in the future. For children, tucks at the shoulder and waist — kata-age and koshi-age — allow the garment to grow with the child. The way a kimono is sewn changes as its wearer moves through life.

Now, what can a kimono that is no longer worn become?

A single bolt of fabric, a companion for life.

A furisode — long-sleeved kimono for young women — can be remade into a tomesode or hōmongi. This is perhaps the most well-known transformation.

But there is more: a kimono can become a nagajuban (under-kimono), a haori jacket, a coat, or even an obi sash.

The michiyuki coat, however, is a final form — it cannot be reversed into a haori.

Some fabrics are better suited to certain transformations than others.

A nagajuban can become a haoura — the lining of a haori. Making the outer garment and its lining from the same nagajuban fabric is a quietly chic touch.

The soft pastel colors that suited you in youth may feel at odds with you as you age. When that happens, the fabric can be overdyed into an entirely new color. Embroidery can be added. This is one of the great joys of kimono.

A kimono worn at Shichi-Go-San — the childhood rite of passage — can be redyed and remade into a hōmongi for formal occasions.

A garment worn at age seven, worn again past sixty.

Is there any other clothing in the world that can say the same? Surely, only wafuku.

Next time: because it is hand-sewn, it can be passed to the next generation.

You may never wear a kimono. But you can wear the art of Wasai.

On ne porte pas forcément un kimono. Mais on peut porter l'art du Wasai.

— PASSIONEER

Inquirly