When I was reading a web article in a fashion magazine, I saw the word “upcycling”.
It was about a upcycling of kimono that a company in Kyoto was working on.
Upcycling is to increase the value of things themselves by adding new value to waste and unnecessary items.
For example, making a bag from jeans that you don’t wear anymore, or arranging an old shirt to make it a fashionable shirt.
The kimono upcycling brand “KIEN“ from Kyoto has carefully made vintage kimono with techniques that cannot be reproduced in the present day, delicate embroideries, and vivid colors. I’m proud of its beauty as Japanese.
In order to keep such a kimono culture, the kimono that is no longer used will be reborn to fit the modern clothes life and it will propose designs for clothes as a new way to enjoy kimono.
I saw the article of “KIEN“ because it was written that you could order even your own kimono.
Ah... I wish I could meet a company that would do such a thing earlier.
I got married 4 years ago and had a wedding ceremony at Shimogamo Shrine, which is a World Heritage Site. At that time, my mother was very worried about whether to wear “tomesode” kimono because the shrine was solemn.
As a bride’s mother, wearing tomesode is very formal, but she couldn’t wear a kimono because of a physical disability (prosthetic leg). However, she was preparing for it to wear it at her daughter’s wedding “someday”, so she was wondering about wearing it. Since she couldn’t wear sandals for kimono because of her prosthetic legs, she gave up wearing her tomesode, looked for another tomesode dress at a costume rental shop, and decided a new one.
I remembered that she was disappointed because she could not wear it as a mother.
Even if you want to wear your own kimono but you can’t, like my mother, you can wear your own kimono.
You don’t need to put your “feelings” away.
This time, I talked about “KIEN“ which can achieve and propose “feelings”.
It exactly matches the current era. It is contributing to the SDGs to be sustainable through recycling.