Ask the gaijin that just spent $600 on kimono

I agree, Dharma Trading is great, but I don’t think they deliver to Thailand either (but there are some majorly awesome silks here anyway, and in our trips to Japan we’re also hoping to hit Izutsu-ya in Kyoto or similar places to get some accurately-patterned fabric for future Heian garments).

(BTW, fellow reenactor, cool! Are you on the SCA-JML list, or Tousando?)

BTW, the outfit I’m wearing in the picture I posted is a noshi sugata, not a kariginu sugata– unless you’re referring to the pictures elsewhere in that Flickr set of my husband wearing a very nice patterned kariginu (found on Ebay) and purple sashinuki that are too short for him. (We need to get him some better pants…)

Digression on making Heian-period clothing:

The noshi, sashinuki and the hitoe I’m wearing underneath (that can’t be seen, but is dark blue) were all made out of an upholstery-weight linen for summer, out of the pattern book Jidai isho no nuikata, which contains breakdowns of the patterns for various extant historical garments. The linen is not necessarily very authentic (and if so, pretty low-ranking nobility), although hemp and ramie fabrics were period, but it was easy to find, had the right body (VERY important for those garments) and ended up being perfect for the summer event we were attending. All told, although it was a June day in Virginia and I was wearing two-three layers of thick linen and one synthetic open-weave kosode (a modern juban adapted for the purpose) it was incredibly comfortable and kept me very cool. Those clothes wear you, not the other way around-- you can’t help but be “slow and regal” in them.

(The tate-eboshi hat was made of buckram, spray-painted black! It was really easy to make-- I’ve been meaning to post the instructions online so other history geeks can tinker with them. I don’t have a kanmuri yet-- I’ve been thinking of trying to make one by blocking, but that’s down my project list a ways.)

Oh, that was definitely an “I don’t know, and now I feel like an idiot” uuuuhhh.

Sorry about that.

Thank you. I’m at the stage where I realize how much I really don’t know. I’m trying to hide it well. =^.^=