Osen Kimono picspam
Osen is a 10 episode 2008 japanese drama about a young girl running a very old traditional style restaurant as its okami (owner and hostess). The main theme is slow food vs fast food and the value of taste and very labour intense traditional processes/arts. The main reasons to enjoy this series are the beautiful food, beautiful houses, beautiful pottery.. basically everything is mouthwatering and tasteful to look at. Even the garden of the restaurant stops my heart.
But the superbonus reason I love it is that the main character wears nothing but kimono ! Pyjama kimono, hangover breakfast kimono, superformal kimono, gardenwork kimono, posh date kimono, television appearance kimono, shopping kimono.... it shows the full range of moods, styles and formality, from very playful and young to serious and dignified. Sometimes there's a scene only a few minutes and she wears an entirely new outfit just for that! and they don't even show the whole outfit! I just want a big size glossy photobook with all of them. There are many styles of kimono I dislike but this stylist is pushing all my buttons. It's big and bold, even in the more mature outfits. The patterns are insane, but the kitsuke (how you wear it) is very traditional: perfect for the character.
Here are some of my favourites (but there are tons and tons more which I couldn't find any pictures of, you'll just have to watch the series to enjoy it):
The rose kimono with checkered han-eri from episode 1:
Everything from episode 5 was amazing (especially the GEESE OBI):
Some from episode 6, I loved the casual dog obi:
The story is a bit slow at first but later much more acceptable, the actors are cute and the theme is explored from different sides (traditional carpentry and ancient pottery are also in danger of being trampled by modern times!) At the end of every episode she saves the day and defeats the bad guy by cooking and they show the process step by step and it looks DELICIOUS. It's a bit unrealistic but the message is very passionate and sincere. Lesser sides were the open ending and the male protagonist being an annoying brat in the first few episodes, but that gets much better as well.
The official japanese site has a 'fashion' section with close ups and information!
This kimono blog has drawings and analysis of the outfits! Can't read it but I love the enthusiasm.