We had been meaning to go to see Kimono at the V&A in Dundee since it opened way back in May but ‘stuff’ just got in the way. I was a bit shocked when I discovered that the exhibition closes on the 5th of January, so we had to just make time for it, or miss it completely. So we went there yesterday – unfortunately we weren’t the only people who had almost missed it, it was very busy! But I managed to take quite a lot of photos while there, it was much bigger than I had expected and there were a lot of details to pore over as well as information cards to read. We were there for quite a long time. I’m just putting a few photos on here just now. I’ll leave the rest for the new year.
Below is a photo of pieces of fabric which make up a kimono. It’s all straight edges so should be very simple to put together.
Although they’re made out of silk these ones below must be from top quality heavy silk as some of them date from around the 1700s, they’re amazing survivors.
The grey kimono below was made for a young woman. It looks deceptively simple but does have embroidery and texture woven into the fabric.
The portrait below is of Elizabeth Smith, wife of publisher George Murray Smith. She added some embelishments to it, such as buttons and fasteners. The portrait is right next to the actual garment which is below.
Below is a close up of the beautiful embroidery. All things Japanese were incredibly fashionable for quite a number of years in Victorian times. I can well understand the attraction. I’m sure they would be very comfortable, especially when compared with what European women were expected to wear at the time.
The exhibition at the V&A in Dundee is only on until January 5th, 2025 so there are only a few days left to see it, and I suppose the V&A will be closed on the 1st and 2nd of January. I’m glad that we managed to see it after putting it off for so long.
The garments in your photos are especially fine specimens. Underneath them go layer upon layer of other, less spectacular materials. Unless they’ve taken lessons, most Japanese women would be unable to wind the various layers around themselves without help.
One of the last items to go on is the wide cloth belt, inside which go one or two stiffening pads, the equivalent of whalebone corsets. Once they’re inserted and the belt is tightened and pulled into shape at the back, breathing normally becomes difficult, sitting in a chair a challenge, and walking has to be done very, very carefully.
Janusz,
There is a painting in the exhibition of a young woman being wound into the under fabric, just like a wide bandage. I wonder though if they would have been able to tighten it all as much as the corsets that European women used. Lots of them were dying of slow suffocation and compressed internal organs, including three teenage sisters who are buried in a village near where I grew up. I think that European women used kimonos as a sort of housecoat, and the men wore them in the place of a smoking jacket, they would have been cosier in winter as well as being elegant.