wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing
Welcome to my www.wafuku.co.uk WordPress blog
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Japanese haori are long jackets, with deep, kimono style sleeves, designed to be worn on top of a kimono, though they are fabulous when worn over western world style clothes, like jeans or dresses. Women’s haori can be particularly beautiful, often with fabulous, Japanese textile art on them. They are not worn with an obi, though they do look great when cinched in with a belt or sash. They are usually fastened very loosely with a pair of ties called a himo, which is normally bought separately from the haori. Men’s himo are usually hooked onto the haori and unhooked to open it, rather than untied, though one can just untie the himo instead. Women’s himo are usually looped onto the haori and tied each time it is worn. Below you can see some examples of haori and, above those, instructions showing how to tie women’s himo, then how to tie men’s himo, as each gender ties theirs differently.
How to tie a woman’s haori himo
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How to tie a man’s haori himo
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Now some examples of women’s and men’s haori from my www.wafuku.co.uk website, where you can also see hundreds more
Women’s
1920s red haori
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Geometric design haori, worn with a sash, with western world clothes
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Lacy print haori
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Fabulous bird design haori
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All hand done shibori (intricate tie dye) haori
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1920s purple haori
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Butterflies galore haori
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Pink haori with chrysanthemums
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Examples of haori worn with western world clothing
Men’s haori
Men’s haori differ from women’s; the sleeves are attached to the body either all the way down the inner edge or all but an inch or so down. This is to match their kimonos. The sleeves of men’s kimonos are the same, whereas women’s kimono and haori sleeves swing loose and unattached at the body edge for a lot of their depth, this is because women wear very deep obis, so the sleeves have to be able to hang over them, whereas men wear much narrower obis and wear them lower down, so their sleeves do not get in the way and can be attached to the body of their garments all the way down.
Another difference with men’s kimonos and haoris is that they tend to be very subdued in pattern and colour. A long, long time back, the nobles and samurai got somewhat annoyed that so many rich merchants of lower class were able to afford and wear very ornate, ostentatious clothing, showing up the poorer of the samurai and upper classes and not allowing the richer ones to stand out, so a law was passed banning men who were neither samurai nor noblemen from wearing ornate clothing. This led the lower classes to adopt what was known as hidden beauty, putting fabulous textile designs on the linings of their haoris and on their naga-juban underwear kimonos. In time this made them feel superior and more classy, as their beautiful textiles were less flaunted but still there. You can see examples of that hidden beauty on the linings of some of the men’s haori below
3 geisha lining, men’s haori
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Galloping horse lining, men’s haori
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Airy ro silk men’s summer haori, with bamboo mon (crests)
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Shunga (traditional Japanese erotic art) lining, men’s haori
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Japanese woman lining, men’s haori
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Beautiful scenes lining, men’s haori
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Simi-e (ink and wash art) lining, men’s haori
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Woman with scroll lining, men’s haori
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Another shunga (traditional Japanese erotic art) lining, men’s haori
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Fabulous scenery, on donsu lining, men’s haori.
Donsu linings have the design woven into the silk and haori with them are known as donpa haori
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