Lexxiington [2009-02-12 22:13:50 +0000 UTC]
I have a couple of questions.
Who ties the obi? Because I keep reading that it takes more than one person to do that. And I've seen videos of people tying them.
And are these kimonos expensive?
I really want to learn about this, your answers will be really helpful.
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Kurokami-Kanzashi In reply to Lexxiington [2009-02-17 17:39:46 +0000 UTC]
Traditionally, yes maiko do have someone to tie their obi. They generally have a kimono dresser to come and dress them every day. For normal people, yes it does help to have someone to tie the obi for you, but it's not neccessary. Some knots are also easier to do than others.
This particular kimono was expensive because it belonged to an apprentice geisha, and those are rather rare. Most other kimono can be purchased relatively cheaply from vintage kimono dealers and ebay. Be careful with ebay though because there are a lot of sellers who lie and list fake western kimono as authentic ones, or make claims that their item was a geisha's or a royal gift and try to charge way more than the kimono is worth. I rarely pay more than $100 USD for a single kimono and have even gotten one for $0.99 before.
Here are some good places to start when shopping for kimono:
[link]
[link]
[link]
Those three are all reputable sellers with reasonable prices. I have bought from all of them and have not been disappointed.
Otherwise, here are a couple of good places to learn about kimono and kimono dressing:
[link]
[link]
Hope that helps!
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