Did the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, wear a kimono on a recent visit to Singapore? Well, the photos say not. But it did give the UK’s Guardian an excuse to run a short feature on the future of Japan’s most iconic, and historic, outfits. The piece, somewhat preposterously headlined “Can Kate Save the Kimono?” includes the sad tale of a fifth-generation kimono maker. Unfortunately he will be the last of his line to take on the family firm due to a huge fall in sales.
So is the elegant, back bracing, kimono becoming an endangered species? Is its fate entirely in the hands of British queen-to-be Kate?(!) I’m going to say no.
While kimono-clad ladies may not be an everyday sight in Tokyo, Japan’s most metropolitan city, they are usually a weekly one. Particularly if you’re on the subway in the early evening when their bright colours and innate dignity are rendered all the more impressive by the back drop of strip-lights and claustrophobic office workers. Temples and shrines are also often peppered with ladies and children in traditional dress.
With their many layers, which must turn positively torturous in the humid summer months, and hefty price tag it’s easy to see why women have opted to keep traditional dress for best.
But, when you have a national dress this beautiful and this flattering, it’s safe to say it will continue to brighten up my commute.
Here’s a kimono, and maiko wearer, surreptiously snapped in April in its most natural habitat – Kyoto’s Gion.
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