Ikat Kimono

Japanese commoners were not allowed to wear silk until the 1860’s and instead were relegated to wearing coarse cloth woven of hemp or other plant fibers. Once they were allowed to wear silk, the demand for patterned silk skyrocketed. The kasuri (ikat) technique was very costly and was replaced by the meisen techinque, which was printed instead of dyed, but not in this case. This kimono is created using the ikat technique, in which the threads of the warp were dyed before being woven together with the weft.

This kimono has a very subtle, polychromatic design on a beige, crepe silk ground. Vertical pink, purple, and blue rectangles are placed in a diagonal line throughout the entire garment. Groups of two darker beige stripes break up the designs vertically.