Came across the above on a Facebook group for Kimono Sellers, asking what it is. Since we have these fairly often, and have one on hand now, thought we'd put up a brief reply. This is called a Kateigi, or, in katakana, 'ho-mu-ko-to" (home coat); we might call it a home or work jacket for women. It resembles jinbei, but those are traditionally work jackets for men (more recently, now can be uni-sex work jackets); Jinbei have a different, more rectangular, cut to the sleeves. Here at yokodana.com we have fabric for making a Kateigi  and show below the label and...

Do you love traditional Japanese textiles? Particularly things like indigo-dyed pieces such as Katazome and Tsutsugaki? Well if so, one of the world's renown experts in this is found in Mendocino County, California. We know that many of our customers rave about the work of John Marshall, an American, who for over 30 years has mastered traditional Japanese dyeing techniques such as Katazome and Tsutsugaki. His latest book -- just published in July 2018-- is titled: "Singing the Blues, with John Marshall as Your Guide" At the top of the cover it says: " Soulful Dyeing For All Eternity" ....

Ancient Asian Fashion Trends: What is Old is New Again Being some reflections on global fashion's influence from East Asian historical garments... Eloquence and Grace:While the new world of the twenty-first century is full of hustle and bustle, technology and the quest for the "cutting edge", it sometimes lacks the kind of simple elegance, grace, and sophistication that came out of the ancient world. One of the more interesting and succinct fashions of the old world come from East-Asia. Known for flowing, floral patterned fabric, China particularly was responsible for much of the early fashion industry, thanks to their production...

Our customer Heather with her husband Rich at a wedding in Westerly, RI  About these pictures: For years now, whenever we do shows, whether it's a quilt show, a Japanese cherry blossom festival or an Anime event, we often have customers tell us that they'll send us a picture when they make something from the fabrics they just bought from us. The above are from one of those situations. Heather bought the shown fabrics from our by-piece rack at a quilt show in Connecticut last year. So imagine our pleasant surprise when these pictures arrived in our email. So, we are...

We've been following the images of this group, Japan Inside (actually http://japaninsides.com ) as they have some excellent and different posts of all sorts of Japanese cultural scenes -- old traditional and new -- on Facebook and elsewhere:  which is where we found this handy chart for our kitsuke fans (kimono-wearers):  For more detailed experts' definition of terms, and read about all things Kimono and Geisha, check out Immortal Geisha (Once on our FAQ page about Immortal Geisha HERE, just scroll down a page to see their Forum, Wiki and Facebook links).