05 April 2013

Obi'Age Collection

These are not "blog posts" per se, just a photo collection of the interesting and unique textiles in my collection.  To see the rest of my textile collection, click the link at the top of the page or go here:

Textile Collection Main Page

Obi'Age
 Obi'age are long rectangular pieces of fabric that are worn right above the obi.  They are used to cover up the ties used to keep the obi knot together, such as the ties attached to the obi'makura (obi pillow).  Obi'age can be worn highly visible, overlapping the obi, or they can be tucked into the obi.  Young women can show lots of the obi'age, but a more mature woman shows less.

 
Brighter colours are a style reserved for youth.  Red in particular is usually reserved for young women.
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This scrap of purple silk came from a small fabric store in Santa Fe.  It needs ironing every time before i use it, but the tiny flower pattern is very cute!
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I made this obi'age out of a length of beautiful red silk.  It was originally intended to be part of a maiko ensemble that I never completed.  I hand-painted the design using high-quality silver fabric paint.  This is one of my favourite obi'age, but it is very difficult to wear unless I have someone else to help me put it on-otherwise it gets messed up when I rotate my obi bow to the back.
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I wear this obi'age all the time.  It is a scrap of dusty pink dupioni silk that I hemmed up to prevent fraying.  It wasn't big enough for anything else, but it goes beautifully with most of the kimono I own.
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