Kimonos are not cheap things to acquire in Japan. Even a good summer kimono (yukata) can fetch for a few hundred dollars. A good silk kimono can cost somewhere from a thousand dollars to, say, $15,000, which gets the average Japanese girl (or her parents) thinking about how much she wants to spend on something that she may not wear too often, given that people would have seen the design once worn. It is perhaps the equivalent of wearing a Gucci or a Dolce & Gabbana: once you wear it, people will remember it. How often will you then don the same thing for the next function?
Now enter the Tokyo-based Kyoto Kimono Yuzen Co. (京都きもの友禅) with a seamless solution of the Dress-Furisode: a kimono that converts into a party dress or an evening gown, where the wearer puts the full-length dress first, then an undervest, a jacket, and finally the obi (the sash or the belt). A young lady or perhaps her parents may buy one for her Seejin no hi (Coming of Age Day), and the lady could wear the evening gown for another occasion.
Furisode is formal kimono for single women. Click HERE to learn more about Furisode or kimono in general.
