As I prepare for our Yukata Fashion Show on August 22, I have been reorganizing my kimono closet—and, as always, rediscovering just how much history, creativity, and possibility can exist in a single piece of fabric.

This year, I brought several new heko obi back from Japan in beautiful colors such as ice blue, green, purple, and other vibrant shades.

When I was growing up in Japan, heko obi were very different from what we see today.

In my childhood, I associated heko obi primarily with children. For adults, the image that comes to mind is the understated, often dark indigo shibori-style heko obi traditionally worn by men.

Colorful, voluminous heko obi styled into elaborate bows for adult women were certainly not something I commonly saw.

Today, things have changed.

Adult women can enjoy heko obi in an extraordinary variety of colors, textures, and styles. They can be tied into dramatic bows, softly layered, twisted, folded, or arranged almost sculpturally.

I love this freedom.

The same obi can look completely different depending on how you feel that day, what you are wearing, and how you choose to shape it.

And that idea—respecting tradition while allowing room for creativity—is also at the heart of my Yukata Fashion Show.

Why My Fashion Shows Are a Little Different

My kimono and yukata fashion shows always include an unexpected element.

I do this intentionally.

As a nationally certified Level 2 Kimono Dressing Specialist in Japan, I believe that creative styling should begin with an understanding of traditional dressing.

Traditional kitsuke is an extraordinary discipline, and Japan has highly experienced teachers and masters who have spent decades perfecting their craft.

If you attend a formal kimono dressing demonstration in Japan, you can see exceptional traditional techniques performed at an extraordinarily high level.

What I hope to do in the United States is slightly different.

Rather than showing only the finished appearance of kimono, I want audiences to see some of what normally happens behind the scenes.

How does a kimono actually go onto the body?

Why is it so long?

What are all those ties doing?

How does something that begins as such a simple, flat garment become such a precisely shaped silhouette?

Those questions are particularly important when introducing kimono culture to people who did not grow up with it.

“Isn’t This Kimono Too Long?”

One comment I often hear is:

“Isn’t the kimono too long?”

The answer is: it is supposed to be.

A traditional women’s kimono is generally not worn in the same way as a Western dress, where the finished garment is cut to a predetermined body length.

The length is adjusted during dressing, traditionally creating the fold known as the ohashori.

This is one of the fascinating differences between Western clothing construction and kimono.

A kimono is not simply something you put on.

It is something you dress onto the body.

The wearer and the dresser determine the final silhouette through folding, overlapping, positioning, tying, and adjustment.

In that sense, the process of dressing is part of the garment itself.

Turning Kimono Dressing Into Performance

This year, I want to make that normally hidden process visible.

I will be presenting a:

Kimono Dressing Dance

Rather than entering the stage already fully dressed, I will incorporate the process of dressing into movement and music.

The audience will be able to watch the silhouette gradually develop.

For me, the finished kimono is beautiful—but the process of creating that finished form is equally fascinating.

I want people to see that process not as a technical lecture, but as performance.

And Then Comes Another Transformation

There is another experiment I am especially excited to present this year.

We are going to take a yukata and style it as something completely different:

a resort-inspired dress.

There are creative kimono-dressing techniques in Japan that allow kimono to be styled into dress-like silhouettes without permanently cutting the original garment.

This concept is particularly meaningful for sentimental kimono.

Imagine having your mother’s kimono.

Or your grandmother’s.

Perhaps it was worn for a coming-of-age celebration, a wedding, or another important moment in your family.

You may want to wear it differently—but you may not want to cut it apart.

Creative dressing offers another possibility.

So I began thinking:

Could we explore the same idea with yukata?

For our August 22 show, one of our models will appear in a yukata styled to resemble a resort dress.

Then, onstage, we will transform it:

Resort Dress → Yukata

The important part is this:

We are not cutting the yukata.

No scissors.

No permanent reconstruction.

Through the positioning of the fabric, folds, ties, and dressing technique, the same garment can take on an entirely different silhouette—and then return to being a yukata.

Why Not Cutting the Kimono Matters

I want to be very clear that I am not opposed to kimono remake or upcycling.

Turning damaged or unused kimono into dresses, bags, accessories, artwork, or other objects can be a wonderful way to give beautiful textiles another life.

But there is an important difference between remaking a kimono into a dress and dressing a kimono as a dress without cutting it.

Once a kimono is cut, it becomes something new.

If we do not cut it, however:

The dress we wear today can become a kimono again tomorrow.

That reversibility is what fascinates me.

1. Preserving Family Memories

A kimono can carry far more than monetary value.

It may carry memories.

Your mother’s furisode.

Your grandmother’s kimono.

A yukata worn during a particular summer.

A garment connected to a wedding, Coming-of-Age Day, or another family milestone.

Sometimes we want to use those garments in a new way without permanently changing them.

A non-cutting approach allows us to explore a different silhouette while preserving the original garment for the future.

2. One Garment Can Have More Than One Life

Modern clothing is generally designed with a predetermined function.

A dress is a dress.

A jacket is a jacket.

A skirt is a skirt.

Kimono is interesting because its final shape depends significantly on how it is dressed.

The same yukata can be worn traditionally one day and interpreted creatively another day.

Different obi, accessories, folds, and styling choices can completely transform its personality.

Instead of:

one garment = one fixed look

we can think:

one garment = many possibilities.

3. A Garment Designed to Be Adjusted

Kimono interacts with the body differently from most Western clothing.

Rather than relying primarily on fitted seams, zippers, and predetermined contours, the garment wraps and overlaps around the body and is secured and adjusted during dressing.

Traditional kimono can also be taken apart and tailored again when appropriate.

There is something remarkably rational about this idea:

rather than permanently forcing the human body to fit one exact garment shape, the textile can be adjusted to the person wearing it.

4.Kimono and Sustainable Thinking

One of the most fascinating things I discovered while researching this subject is that many ideas we now associate with sustainable fashion have existed within kimono culture for generations.

Traditional kimono construction makes extensive use of relatively simple, straight-cut fabric sections.

A traditionally constructed kimono can also be taken apart at its seams and returned relatively close to the original bolt-of-cloth format.

Historically, this allowed garments to be altered, redyed, resewn, and passed from one generation to another.

A kimono made for one generation could be adjusted for the next.

Sometimes it could continue into a third generation.

And when the textile was eventually no longer suitable to be worn as clothing, the remaining fabric could still be reused for smaller objects.

This reflects the Japanese concept of mottainai—a reluctance to waste something whose usefulness or value has not yet been exhausted.

Long before “sustainable fashion” became an international fashion industry term, Japanese people had already developed sophisticated ways of extending the useful life of precious textiles.

5.From Mother to Daughter—and Perhaps to Granddaughter

This is especially meaningful to me.

Fashion does not always have to mean buying something new.

Sometimes fashion can mean taking something another person loved and finding a way to make it meaningful in your own time.

Then, when you are finished with it, you pass it forward.

Many of the yukata appearing in our August 22 show are antique or vintage pieces from my own family in Japan.

I do not see them as “old clothes.”

I see them as garments waiting for their next chapter.

My question is:

What happens when we give an old yukata a 2026 interpretation?

6.“I Have Nowhere to Wear Kimono”

This is another reason I believe creative styling matters—particularly outside Japan.

People often tell me:

“I love kimono, but where would I wear one?”

That is a legitimate question.

Many of us do not attend formal tea ceremonies, weddings, traditional celebrations, or Japanese cultural events every week.

If we believe that beautiful kimono can only be worn on rare formal occasions, many extraordinary garments will spend decades inside closets.

So perhaps we can expand the possibilities.

Wear it to a party.

Use it as performance costume.

Explore a dress-like styling.

Wear it as art.

And tomorrow, return it to its traditional form.

I do not believe that preserving culture always means keeping an object untouched.

Wearing culture can also be a way of preserving it.

7.Curiosity Is the Beginning of Cultural Education

This is especially important to me as someone introducing Japanese culture in the United States.

If I only present kimono to people who already love kimono, the circle remains small.

But imagine someone watching our show and saying:

“Wait—that is actually a yukata?”

“You didn’t cut it?”

“How did that dress suddenly become a yukata?”

Now we have curiosity.

And curiosity creates questions:

Why is kimono constructed that way?

What is an ohashori?

Why are kimono fabrics shaped differently from Western dress patterns?

How can a garment be passed through several generations?

Suddenly, fashion has become an entry point into history, craftsmanship, aesthetics, and Japanese culture.

For me, a fashion show is not simply about showing clothing.

It is an invitation into culture.

Tradition and Innovation Do Not Have to Be Opposites

I do not believe preserving tradition and creating something new are inherently contradictory.

In fact, understanding the fundamentals allows us to ask better questions about innovation.

What can change?

What should remain?

What is merely convention—and what carries cultural meaning?

There are formal occasions where traditional kimono conventions and appropriate dressing matter.

Kimono has its own language of formality, seasonality, symbolism, and etiquette.

Creative styling should not erase that knowledge.

But fashion, performance, and casual yukata can also provide room for experimentation.

We can learn the rules.

We can respect the tradition.

And then, in an appropriate context, we can explore what else is possible.

Even Heko Obi Tells This Story

That brings me back to the colorful heko obi currently covering my floor as I prepare for the show.

When I was young, I never imagined adult women wearing heko obi in some of the elaborate and colorful styles we see today.

Now I love them.

Culture changes.

Fashion changes.

But change does not necessarily require abandoning what came before.

Sometimes we preserve the foundation and simply add another layer.

And Then There Is ANNA SUI…

Speaking of playful yukata, I also have to mention one of my favorite brands since my college years: ANNA SUI.

ANNA SUI mini, the children’s line, has produced some absolutely adorable yukata.

ANNA SUI mini has also offered easy-to-wear separated yukata designs, showing how traditional summer clothing can be adapted for contemporary practicality.

And every time I see them, I think:

Please make an adult version, too!

I would love to see more designers explore the space between traditional Japanese clothing and contemporary fashion.

What I Hope You Will See on August 22

Our Yukata Fashion Show is not intended to present:

“traditional kimono” versus “modern kimono.”

Instead, I want to ask:

If we understand and respect the tradition, what possibilities can we discover within it?

You will see a Kimono Dressing Dance, where the act of dressing becomes part of the performance.

You will see a yukata transformed:

Resort Dress → Yukata

without cutting the original garment.

You will see vintage family yukata paired with contemporary, colorful heko obi.

And underneath all of that is one simple idea:

A piece of fabric can change.

A style can change.

A generation can change.

But the garment itself can continue its journey.

Preserve the tradition.
Reimagine the way we wear it.
Pass it on to the next generation.

If someone leaves our show thinking,

“I never realized kimono could be this versatile, thoughtful, and fascinating,”

then we have accomplished exactly what I hoped to do.

Chiren
President, Japanese Institute of St. Louis
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