Silk, flowers and red lips

What am I talking about? Well, about kimono's, of course! I have quite a lot of kimono’s to date, but one of them has always need to be the first. Because I could write chapters about by costumes and I don’t want to drown you in a flow of words, I will write the introduction in this post and continue in a next, as to give the illusion I'm not blabbering everything at once :)

I introduced Laura to you in the last post: the friend with whom I made a lot of costumes. In 2007 we first watched Memoirs of a Geisha. We instantly fell in love with beautiful image of a white-painted girl with red lips, wearing a kimono. Now I know that the image the movie sculpts of a Geisha life is false, and the hairstyles aren’t even correct. While the movie still has a nice story and beautiful atmosphere, I now know a lot more about the true geisha life – but that is after 5 years of being interested.

A kimono is so different from all our Western clothing, vintage or contemporary. While Western clothing mostly accentuates natural body curves – or creates a different curvy shape with a corset – a kimono mostly does the opposite. There is no tiny waist or ample bosom and hips. Instead, a kimono creates a straight line, and wearing a kimono well can be a challenge if you do have a curvy body shape. If I want to wear one well, I need to “pad” my waist and hollow back with a towel. Anyone who is well endowed in the busty area can have problems with getting a good fit. But the Japanese body shape is more straight than ours, of course, so it’s not so weird that their national clothing fits that.

The first kimono I ever made isn’t really something that earns the title “kimono”. It was a “small” costume I made for Castlefest 2007. “Big” costumes are usually reserved for the Elf Fantasy Fair. I had gotten a large carton box filled with fabric from my grandma, and one of the fabrics was this shiny, golden fabric with a flower pattern near the sides. There wasn’t enough to make a long kimono, so I made it knee-length. I didn’t know anything of the right proportions – I just started to learn how to best use google – so the sleeves are to broad, for example. Anyway, it was a good practice on how a kimono works and that while the clothing piece itself isn’t very intricate of shape – it is difficult to wear right.

After we watched the movie, Laura and I decided to make a maiko – apprentice geisha –  costume for the Elf Fantasy Fair in 2008. While we did do a lot of research on google, we failed at several fronts. The fabric is real kimono silk we bought in a bolt on ebay. A maiko wear a special type of furisode kimono, a kimono that has long sleeves. The bolt we purchased is to make a tsukesage kimono, a kimono with short sleeves that is the equivalent of a nice dress you might wear at a party. To compare, you can say a furisode is like a fancy evening dress, reserved for unmarried women attending very formal occasions. Anyway, I still really love the pattern on it (I'm the right person). Since I don't think it's all that well made, I'm thinking of re-making it into a Victorian bustle dress. I've seen it on a few examples, were kimono fabric was used to make the bustle, and I really liked the result.

We did find how to tie a obi – the sash around the waist – but we made it ourselves. Just as you have a lot of different types of kimono, there are as many different types of obi. The obi that a maiko wears is a sash of about 30cm wide and 7m long, much longer than the length of a normal obi of about 4m. They are called darari obi and are incredibly expensive, even second hand. I really would like one, but I’m afraid my wallet won’t allow me such purchases.

Another thing that is such a hallmark for a maiko is her hairstyle. We wanted to buy one of the wigs, but they are as expensive as a darari obi. So, we needed to make do with our own hair. Laura’s hairdresser had graduated on the hairdo’s of a maiko – can you imagine the luck? Then we had a second problem: black hair. In 2007, I was in something I now call my Emo Phase. I just dyed my hair black, no problem. Laura wasn’t crazy enough and sprayed it black instead. The last asset to our coiffure was a kanzashi, the dangling fabric flowers. We made those ourselves, and while I made a lot more now, I know the way I made them then is still a bit crappy. As I said before, you learn from your own mistakes! We also bought a few vintage hair pins from ebay, beautiful pins I cherish still.

Next, came the makeup. White face and red lips, and black-rimmed eyes. No problem. We bought oil-based theatre makeup that wouldn’t get runny in warm weather because of sweat. Still, it wasn't the best smooth coverage that you could get and my cheeks were a little too red, I think we did an okay job, overall. In the photo right of here, you can see me in the advertisment of the Elf Fantasy Guide. Well, I'm still a little proud of that, even though the kanzashi you see is rather ugly. 

Then there is one final part that needs telling: the shoes, or okobo. We made there ourselves! We found a tutorial on the internet and Laura and her father did most of the work. When I look back upon them, their shape is entirely wrong, they are much too massive and just not elegant as they are supposed to be. Recently, I made a new pair over at my father's place, painted them black, and I absolutely love that pair. 

Just to let you know the true value of a kimono, I will show you a picture I made on my holiday to Japan. Here you can see a beautiful red furisode (one I wouldn't mind to own!) for sale for 180.000 yen, or about 1800 euro. I'll tell you this is one of the cheapest I've see, for I have seen a beautiful obi (so just the sash) for sale in the most expensive warehouse for more than a million yen, and kimono for 880.000 yen and the likes... Alright, the process to make one is very time-consuming, to dyeing and painting the fabric and the sewing itself, but well, they are a bit of a luxury item ;) I can say that I probably own more kimono than half of the current Japanese girls! But mine, of course, are not new.

About becoming a costumer

Dear reader, you find yourself at the second post of my blog. I thought it would be nice to summarise everything I've done before I'll post anything new, kind of like a portfolio of all the costumes I've made to date. I might also post a portfolio about my work as a model - but most of the time, these two hobbies of mine are combined. I make a dress, wear it at a festival, and get photographs taken. People who go to such events must know how it works and how friendly the atmosphere is. It's nice that you know some people you only see a few times a year at those events - either photographers or costumers - while you know what they've been up to on facebook and the likes. 

I started in 2004 with sewing, and in 2005 I made my first costume. The first thing I ever made was an evening dress for our school's yearly Christmas gala. My aunt helped me with all the fitting and taught me everything of how to use the sewing machine. The fabric was a beautiful thick black velvet with red glitter stripes on them. I remember how horrible those glitters were - my aunt said she still found red glitter in her house two years after we've finished!

This picture wasn't made back then, but I took it along to a pinup shoot, last year. The fit of the dress changed a bit, but it still looks right for me on this photo! This photo is made by Titus Davidheimann Beek (http://www.creativeconspiracy.nl/)

It was in the third year of high school that I met a lot of friend that I can still call so :) One of them, Nina, told how she went to something called "Elf Fantasy Fair", the year previous. Apparently, people wore costumes there. Alright, that I wanted to visit too! Together with another friend, we gathered at my aunt's house every monday to make our dresses. This dress wasn't so creative. Gothic dresses were the only costumes we could think of, so that's what we made. And more horrible, a gothic dress made out of cheap velour de panne. Well, at least I can say I've been there and done that ;)

This is a horrible photo of how I went to a Halloween party of one of my dearest friends. You can definitely see I didn't develop any model skills yet! I can't show pictures of the original event, as that was in an age where digital cameras weren't all-round yet and so the pictures were made on film. I could scan those photo's, of course, but I don't feel like it (so there!)

During that summer, we went on a holiday to Croatia and extended that with a few days in Venice. Venice truly inspired me with big dresses! I definitely knew I wanted to make something "big" for the coming year. I also bought a black lace umbrella in Venice. I can remember how happy I was with it, thinking it was all original - when I saw everybody with the same umbrella during the events, in somewhat like ten different colours. Well, at least I'm still proud to say I bought mine in Venice!

So, I wanted a big dress for 2006. I also wanted to do something forest-y! We gathered 6 friends and all wore costumes in the same style with flowers and leaves. The most interesting thing about this dress was making it "big". So, I needed to make a hoop skirt. But we had no idea how to start that. What can form a circle and be stiff enough to hold shape? Kid's hula hoops were too small, that was for sure. The only thing we could think of was a PVC pipe. I still laugh as I look at the attempt. It was good enough if you were standing straight, but you see how horrible it reacts when you're not straight. It would have been much better if we added a hoop somewhere in between, or added a decent amount of tulle poof to cover the skirt. Anyway - besides the hoop skirt, I still like the dress very much. The back was the most beautiful of the thing of the dress, even though the golden ribbon kind of hurt. And of course there was a big bow on my butt.

This was also the first summer I knew of the existence of Castlefest! I went there with my mother, in something doesn't deserve it's own photo, but we had a terrific day in the sun, sitting in the grass, while a group of LARP people battled. We had our own knight that battled for out honour, but unfortunately, he didn't win. But it was the start of another annual event I visited :)

So onwards to the main event of the year - Elf Fantasy Fair! Here started my history with Laura, where we made matching costumes every year. I think it's nicer that when you wear a costume, you have a group or another friend that wear something similar. Even if you are with different style of dresses, but all poofy, you still have a feeling you belong together.

We wanted to make Victorian costumes, a man and wife, to be exact. It was easy that I would be the wife and my friend the husband. She's taller than me and just has more of an air to make a good gentleman than me (but I did try my own in the upcoming years!). The problem: a Victorian dress needs to have a corset. And that was interesting. This was the time when I didn't buy anything on the internet or wasn't good in research yet. Me and my aunt had a interesting time figuring out what to do. The only place we could think of to look, was in a shop that sold, well, sex toys. I can remember how mortified we were to enter such a creepy and indecent place, and how fast we needed to leave. Yeah, they did have corset type of underwear, but in style that quite unfitted my imagination - think leather and belts.

 

So, innocent me and my aunt went to the H&M. They have an actually nice lingerie department. We bought a red corset-thing with plastic boning, and changed the form and added stuffing - I wanted to have something of a cleavage, after all. This corset is the ugliest thing I ever made - in fact, it's stashed at the back of my wardrobe, to be forgotten and dusted until it will be revealed in time. While it didn't do anything for my waist, it did give my bosom the right shape. I didn't know anything about bustles, and while I - still - really like the dress I ended up with, it's not a true time-correct Victorian gown. You really should take a look at the wig - it's hideous and comes from a party shop. As I said, the concept of buying things on the internet was unfamiliar to me, so I had to do with what I did know. 

This year was the first year I made something for someone else! I really wanted my mother and my sister to come along, together with her boyfriend. I made a short and long version black-and white dresses. This was interesting, for it was the first thing I made without help from my aunt, while it also included drafting the pattern by myself. In the end, I dubbed them "mirror dresses". On the picture, Laura and I are wearing them on my first ever photo shoot. I am so terribly ashamed that I forget the name of the photographer, so I'm afraid I can't give him the right credit :(

For Castlefest this year, 2007, I did make something that will be covered as part of a different post! For that was the first of many "kimono"-costumes, and I think it is more befitting to give them their own post. The same goes for the "major" project of that year, but I would like to include one last dress in what I call "beginner dresses" in my head.

We're going to skip a year and land ourselves in 2009. This is the first year where the Elf Fantasy Fair was hosted twice a year, at a different castle. I wore something that will be covered in another post, but I made something for my mother to wear. In the meantime, I started to use the internet for buying stuff. I bought my first wig and a corset with steel boning, that's of course 300x times better than the one I had made myself. With this corset, you could actually lace your waist, and shape your body in the right way.

The dress my mother wears was based at around 1860. Since the "Victorian" dress, I made all my costumes without my aunt's help. Here, I had to do a lot of fitting to get the jacket right. I actually really like this dress, for the fabrics were beautiful. The biggest fault of this dress, is still that ugly hoop. Instead of having a rounded shape that would be time-correct, the weight of the skirt made a concave shape, and made the ending silhouette really wrong. Although you cannot see it well on this photo, I made a little hat that I loved most out of this entire costume.

Why do I call these dresses "beginner dresses", you ask? Do I dislike them? Well, no, that is not the case. What I mean is, that I learnt A LOT while sewing these. Like, how you shouldn't make a corset, and that a PVC pipe is NOT the right way to make a hoop skirt. I also learnt to sew by myself and modify/make up patterns. The knowledge I got from making these dresses formed the base of my later dresses. But I still have all of them, and I would never throw them away! (besides the ugly PVC hoop skirt, I took the thick fabric as lining for my first corset, the thing was too ugly to remain in my possession) Always when I make something, I would like to think that there comes a time in the future when I look at my creation and say: wow! I've improved so much from here! That is where I strife for.

I also want to say that costumes are not the only thing I make. Like I said, my first dress was an evening gown, I made gowns for the other years of the Christmas Ball as well. I've also made a few skirt and dresses to wear in normal life, but since I don't think they are really interesting, I won't show them here. These costumes are what takes most of my creativity! I just showed my first dress simply because it was my first ever creation - and truly, I also like the photo.

I hope this little story amused you in some way. If you are a costumer yourself, I would really be interested to know how you started your first costume, and what you think of it when you look back. Anyway, I plan to update with all the other costumes I've made in other post. I hope you have a nice day. Although it is a little warm here, we can enjoy our last days of summer in the extreme.

Nice to make your acquaintance

Well. I have a blog now. A blog. BLOG. It's a weird word, don't you think? What can you do with these so-called things? Why in the Earth would I want to create one? I thought that would be a good subject for my first blog.

Years ago, I've thought a blog was a sort of rambling medium for attention seeking people. Who in their right mind would talk about their lives as if it is of any interest to someone else? It's just people who like to hear themselves talk, or read their own writing, perhaps. Well, yeah. That might still be the case, but my mind changed over the years. A blog can be useful. And sometimes it just is nice to read other people's rambling. I like rambling. And if no one ever reads this, at least I'll have a nice time writing these.

The first time when I thought blogs might be useful, when was I was searching the net for information about corset. I wanted to make one, but I had no clue how to. During my searches, I came upon blogs of costumers who showed somewhat like step-by-step pictures and descriptions of their own projects, and these blogs really helped me out. I came back to blogs when I wanted to make other things, and they helped me out every time. So, perhaps someone who wants to know how something works, might stumble upon a future blog of me and might find it useful. I also think it's nice to keep track of your own progess while you make something, and look at all the things that changed for your initial sketch, when you're finished.

Also, I have friends that travel the world for their studies. I've read blogs of friends who went to Africa, Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto...... I really enjoyed reading their updates and watching their photos. I myself will be going to London for an internship, and like this, I can keep my friends updated about daily life.

So. Now that you know why I created this, I might tell something about myself. I am a 22-year old masters student of a study that's officially called "Molecular and Cellular Biology" in Leiden. I'm quite enjoying my study, but my true passion lies in creativity. I like to make costumes, either period correct or fantasy and have been doing that since 2005. I've never had any sewing classes, everything I know either comes from what my aunt told me, what I read in blogs, or what I figured out worked fine for me. I also enjoy photography, at both ends of the camera. I want my own camera for my 23th birthday, so I'll have to wait a few months. I also like drawing, and I enjoy playing games, like Dragon Age or the Elder Scrolls series. And don't forget - another passion of mine is baking and cooking! You can look forward to posts about any of these subjects. 

I choose to call my blog the Needle and the Lens, for the Needle, the Lens, the Pencil, the Baking Tin and the Microscope was a little too long!

I hope you have a nice day, dear reader, and I hope that my future rambling will amuse you, or help you out. I'll be looking forward to you!

As an ending note, I will add the photo of my facebook timeline, for I think it is a nice representation of me.