The Revenge Kimono

For this project, I was asked to create a kimono inspired garment that consisted of a large surface area which would allow me to showcase a surface design upon it. For the kimono I created, I decided to draw inspiration from the bloodstained temples in Kyoto Japan, this allowed me to play with my pattern cutting skills by exploring cut outs that resembled Kyoto temple windows and sharp points that resembled the roofs, as well as play with a bold surface design that resembled bloodstains.

This brief allowed me explore a variety of different methods when it came to trying to find the perfect type of dye/print that would work for the vision I had in mind for my kimono. I started the journey of trying to find the perfect media of my surface design by using red wine, although I quickly found the shade to be far to brown for what I was looking for. I turned to natural dyes next; exploring the use of raspberries, blueberries and beetroots, with raspberries and blueberries proving to be a dub I found a winner with the beetroot, I just needed to find a way to get a stronger colour pay off.

I turned to root and jarred beetroot, smashing it into fabric to see what kind of pay off I would get, which was one that I was very fond of however the remnants of beetroot on the fabric did not look appealing – although it did give me the idea of slight beading across the stains could help me showcase this look of beetroot in in a more plate-able fashion forward way.

Anyway, back to the beetroot, the colour was perfect but the smashing would become incredibly tedious, especially across the large surface area that I was planning on having for my kimono so ultimately, I was back to square one.

Finding myself walking the aisles of the local Tesco as I pondered “what will I use for this kimono?”, at this moment I was down the juice aisle and I met with beetroot juice, thinking to myself “strong colour pay off, no beetroot remnants and will be a lot easier to apply to fabric. I picked up a bottle and got straight to work, testing if it would work and it was perfect.