Japanese Haori Kimono Jackets

wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

Welcome to my Wordpress blog

 get this blog’s RSS feed 

————————-

Japanese Haori Kimono Jackets

The haori above is black silk, with embroidered flowers and leaves.

A haori is a long jacket with deep, swinging, kimono style sleeves. About two thirds of the depth of the sleeve is not attached to the body of the garment. Haori are made to be worn over kimonos but look great worn with western world clothing; dressed down with jeans or dressed up with a dress.

Here I show womens’ haori but I also have many mens’ ones. Mens haori are less decorative than women’s, though the linings often have fabulous textile art, and mens’ kimono and haori sleeves are attached either all the way down the body or to about an inch or two above the bottom of the sleeve, whereas womens’ sleeves hang free from the body for a large part of their depth, so that a deep obi can be put round the kimono. As men wear much narrower obis, the sleeves can be attached much further down.

The haori below has wonderful peacocks, woven in metallic, urushi (lacquer coated) thread.

The next haori shown here is a nice example of a light coloured one. Like most vintage haori, it is entirely hand tailored.

The haori shown below has magnificent, hand printed poppies. It is one of my favourites

Where a kimono is a fabulous item to wear in the house, here in the West, I find haori are very versatile and useful garments and I have several of my own that I wear quite frequently. My greatest weakness is for ones with Japanese people on them or with gosho ningyo (imperial dolls), which are very white (to look like porcelain), chubby little figures.

The haori shown below has gorgeous little trees. Another of my favourites

Below is a picture of the front of a haori. Unlike kimonos, they are not worn with an obi sash. They are worn open or can be fastened by attaching a pair of ties, called himo, to the inside edge at the centre, where there are two little loops.

Below, you can see the himo attached to the haori with the roses, shown above. Below that are instructions for tying a woman’s himo.

Men wear haori too, though theirs tend to be less decorative on the outside. The lining of a man’s haori often has fabulous textile art on it, considered ‘hidden beauty’. There is a section in this blog all about that, if you wish to read more on the subject. How to tie a man’s haori himo can be seen here. Men’s himos are hooked onto their haoris and are not untied to open the jacket; to unfasten the it, you just unhook the himo. Men’s himos are tied differently from womens and are bigger. Men;s are usually tied so that the man’s haori lies slightly open and the himo shows.

 

---

Men’s Japanese Kimono Outfit

wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

Welcome to my Wordpress blog

 get this blog’s RSS feed 

————————-

The full, formal, men’s wafuku outfit can be seen below. The full length kimono is worn tucked inside the hakama. Over the top, he wears a haori kimono jacket. Haori are fastened with a haori himo, which is hooked onto the inner edges of the haori. Men’s himo should not be untied, as they are very complex to re-tie, one simply unhooks the himo at one side to open the jacket. A himo is not essential for more casual wear of a haori kimono jacket. Himo are bought separately and moved from one haori to another. The white one in the picture is a very formal himo; for more casual wear, one would wear a smaller, simpler one, usually of a more muted colour.

One of the main differences between men’s and women’s kimonos is the sleeves. The sleeves of women’s are unattached from the body for over half their depth and are open at the inner edge, not sewn closed, whereas men’s kimono sleeves are attached either all the way down or with just an inch or so unattached at the body edge. Women’s sleeves have to be free from the body for a greater depth because they wear such a deep obi and the sleeve must not get in the way of it, so the sleeve hangs free of the body for much of its depth. Men’s obis are relatively narrow, so the deep sleeves can be attached much further down the body.

Another notable difference between men’s and women’s kimonos is the length; women’s kimonos are extra long, as they are worn with a large, length adjusting fold-over at the waist, held in place with a koshi himo tie, whereas men’s kimonos are worn without the length adjusting fold at the waist.

Setta sandals have thong toes and are worn with tabi socks.

Men’s kimonos are not always worn with hakama and haori, the picture above shows the full outfit for formal occasions. The kimono, worn underneath the hakama and haori, is held closed with a kaku obi, which is also used to help keep the hakama up.

Mens’ kimonos are usually very subdued in pattern and colour, although their under kimonos (jubans) and haori linings are often striking but the outerwear kimonos are usually muted in colour and design. The reason men no longer wear very brightly coloured and very decoratively patterned outer kimonos is that, way back, rich merchants started wearing extremely ornate, expensive kimonos, often more expensive and fancy than nobles or those of the samurai class could afford, so a law was passed stating that only nobles and samurai class could wear fancy outer kimonos, all other men had to wear only muted ones (unless worn for theatrical purposes such as dance performance or weddings etc). They took to putting wonderful textile art on their juban underwear kimonos and on haori kimono jacket linings, which became known as hidden beauty, since it didn’t show on the outside, and the merchant classes and commoners started to feel superior about that, it seemed more classy than the ostentatious garments of garish, vivid colours and numerous fancy brocades that the nobles and samurai class continued to wear.

Here’s a link to How to put on a man’s haori and attach and tie a man’s haori himo. Women’s himo are tied differently, you can see how to tie a woman’s haori himo here

---