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Premium
Kimono Silk
10 pieces
4-5" x 9-12": $30
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Stenciled Kimono Cotton
10 pieces
4-5" x 9-12": $30
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Kimono Fabric
Assorted Bundle
10 pieces
4-5" x 9-12": $30
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Indigo Ikat
Kimono Cotton
10 pieces
4-5" x 9-12": $30
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Vintage Kimono Fabric
We sell our silk kimono textiles
in a few different ways: we sell one
gallon ziplock bags of very small, narrow pieces of
kimono silk for $15, which are suitable for only the very smallest
kind of patchwork or craft. Because of recent demand, these
bags are available in limited quantity, and may not always
be available when you place your order.
We also sell bundles of kimono
fabric from $25...
Ten pieces of mostly silk kimono
textiles, either assorted
or color-graded,
in larger pieces approx. 6-7" wide by 9-12" long. By color-graded
we mean bundles of one color: all red,
all blue, all green, all purple, all black/grey earthtones,
or brown earthtones. Or of course assorted,
which is a little bit of everything, and may have some beautiful
synthetics mixed in with the silks. These fabric bundles are
always available for purchase.
The same kind of bundle is available in Stenciled
Kimono cotton, and Indigo Ikat Kimono cotton. The indigo tones tend to
be muted, and refined, rather than bright, and because they are real indigos, must be washed separately.
Japanese Indigo Ikat Kimono textiles are extremely labor intensive.
Most of them are old indigo textiles that were dyed 40 to 70 years ago.
At that time most indigo was dyed between 20 and 40 times, producing a
color that was fast, and would never fade away; only turn more lovely
with washing, and exposure to sunlight. Nowadays, Japan's Indigo
industry is slowly dying. Contemporary Indigo is only dyed 12 times, and
it's still considered so labor intensive that most children aren't
interested in following their parents into the business.
To add interest to the beautiful Indigo shades, the Japanese added
another labor-intensive technique of a kind of resist-dying, called Kasuri in
Japanese, and Ikat in Indonesian. Before weaving, the cotton threads are
taken in bunches and tied in specific patterns. Then they're dipped in
Indigo twelve or twenty or forty times (as described above). Whatever
areas are tied then resist the Indigo dye, and thus produce unique
hazy-line white patterns in the Indigo. Other colors are sometimes also
resist-dyed into the threads, then dyed again with Indigo, and then
woven in with the white Ikat patterns.
Most of the patterns are abstract, geometric patterns, although with
some finer pieces you occasionally find pictures of fans, or pine trees,
or flowers, or even stone lanterns resist-dyed into the Indigo.
Collector's Items of dragons, tigers, and even airplanes exist,
and to date, there is at least one known example of Mickey Mouse done in Indigo resist-dye!
We started doing mail-order because
of the tremendous response to an article about us in the May
1997 issue of Threads magazine, but we request a $20 minimum
order. For shipping and handling on amounts up to $75: if you
live East of the Mississippi add $8; West of the Mississippi
add $10. We only ship by UPS. You can order with a credit card
by calling our retail store Tuesday through Sunday, from 2:00
to 7:00 p.m. (EST) or by sending a check: for an out-of-state
check we will ship when the check clears: usually after seven
business days. We ship only U.P.S. ground. All sales are final,
and there are no exchanges.
If you are visiting our store in New York City
we also have a limited selection of Kimono silk by the yard,
usually about $20 per yard, or more for more expensive silks. (Bear in
mind, most Kimono silk is only 13" wide.)
The textiles used in Kimonos are some of the
finest, most labor-intensive textiles in the world - the silk is often
hand-woven, hand-dyed, hand-painted, hand-embroidered, or hand-done shibori
tie-dye, and almost every kimono is hand-sewn. Every kimono is one-of-a-kind,
and when brand new they can cost thousands of dollars each. Our vintage
silk Kimonos are 30 to 60 years old, so aren't quite that expensive - still
the kimonos we sell can range from $50 to $500, or more! Many of them are
collector's items!
We look forward to filling your
order!
info@oldjapaninc.com
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