Japanese Kimono

Archive for June, 2009

Question: Informal Obi tie for young unmarried women (not yukata)?

Can young unmarried woman also wear a drum obi? I’ve read that this style is for married women but I think I have also seen unmarried women wearing this style. I own some casual (town kimono) and I really want to know what the appropriate obi ties are for kimonos of this kind. They are informal kimono as apposed to yukata. Can you also use a ‘butterfly’ tie as commonly seen with yukata for the less formal kimono too? Please help! Example of appropriate ties would be wonderful.

Answer: Taiko musubi (drum obi) is kind of a basic, standard obi for any woman to wear with almost any kind of kimono (not yukata or furisode, probably, but you can get away with it with almost anything else). There's also tsunodashi, if you want something different. I don't think a butterfly obi would really work with anything other than a hanhaba obi, so you could wear it with some komon, but technically a nagoya obi is better to wear with komon and I've never seen anyone do a butterfly tie with nagoya obi.

Links for you:

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7572 (scroll down for stuff other than otaiko)

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10204

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3059

Kimono for TODAY

Kimono (Furisode) Dressing