April Boyd, one of the moderators on the Immortal Geisha forum, was at the show helping Katie Chaplin at Japan Crafts and standing in for me a few times on Thursday and Friday. April is a fellow kimono enthusiast, who luckily lives a bit closer to the NEC than I do. So when Hungarian textile artist Eszter Bornemisza spotted her perfect kimono on Friday, April offered to bring in all the appropriate accessories and dress her on Saturday morning. This is the result - Eszter makes a great kimono model, the colour of the kimono suits her perfectly and, once you've seen some of her work on her website, you'll see straightaway that the design makes it her ideal kimono. Eszter is standing in front of her panel in the European Quilt Art gallery.
Purple is April's favourite colour for kimono and accessories so we wondered what she could choose from her collection that would coordinate with this brown ochre wool casual kimono, which was probably made about thirty to forty years ago. This modern Nagoya obi with Shiba Inu puppies alternating with squares of faux kanoko shibori (dappled "fawn spot" tie dye) and bamboo leaves suited the kimono's colour and geometric patterns (April has two Shibas, so this obi was perfect for her collection). Knowing some of Eszter's work, I could imagine a rust dyed soft silk heko obi making a great combination too.
I liked this kimono a lot and would have been tempted to keep it for my own collection but I already have quite a few... so it is good to know it has gone to the right person. Maybe Eszter could start designing some kimono too?
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