Tea Bag Kimono

[OhioKimono]

The original site and source is here at: http://rozveevers.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/my-sisters-tea-bag-kimono/

The short story is, a woman has taken all her tea bags for a period of time, and stiched them together to make..a kimono! I bet this is the best smelling kimono over, I love the smell of used tea bags! What a unique idea.

[esther]

Not as strange as it sounds at first. There is a long history of Japanese clothing made of paper.

From http://www.cedarseed.com/pearl/jappaper.html:

Kamiko (paper clothing) and Shifu (woven paper clothing) are the two kinds of clothing made from paper. Kamiko is made in the following way: thick sheets of Washi are pasted together with a special starch, which is then brushed all over the pasted sheet. The sheet is then thoroughly crumpled in order to become soft. At this point it can be tailored into clothes or sashes, and even rainwear: persimmon tannin or tung oil are brushed on the Kamiko to make it waterproof. As for Shifu, it requires the Washi to be cut into thin strips, which are then twisted into paper threads (moroshifu) and woven. Kamiko is winter wear, Shifu is worn in summer: both can sustain washing and were used as substitutes for hemp or cotton clothing.

A Kamiko Paper raincoat from the 1860's: http://www.trocadero.com/kyotoarts/items/914852/item914852store.html

Some examples of kamiko and shifu "fabric": http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f81/made-paper-62015.html


A shimmer of warm air
Rises up from the shoulders
Of my paper robe.

- Matsuo Basho (translated by Toshiharu Oseko)

http://www.markmcguinness.com/index.php/reading-basho-in-the-original/

[munchkins505]

Awesome! it is so cool.

[munchkins505]

I never though you can do that using tea bags. It is so stylish. My only concern is it is durable? I'm afraid it may fall off.

[rjTheUser]

I would hope that the kimono is lined to prevent it from coming apart.
Good thing is it would be a very light kimono.

RJS

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