"Kaguya Kimono" by Daniel Renfrow "Cutzu" - Kimono Zulu Reimagined Vintage Kimono Artist Collaboration

"Kaguya Kimono" by Daniel Renfrow "Cutzu" - Kimono Zulu Reimagined Vintage Kimono Artist Collaboration

Concept:
This entirely hand-embroidered and hand-sewn kimono by freelance journalist and collage and embroidery artist Daniel Renfrow is inspired by “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” an ancient Japanese folklore tale from the 9th century, one of the oldest surviving works in the monogatari form, that was the focus of the 2013 Studio Ghibli film “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.”

The story follows the life of Kaguya-hime, a princess from the moon who is discovered by an old bamboo cutter inside a stalk of bamboo. Although she is initially the size of a thumb, Kaguya-hime, who is adopted by the woodcutter and his wife, quickly grows into a woman of extraordinary beauty. After adopting Kaguya-hime, every time the bamboo cutter cuts open a stalk of bamboo, he finds a nugget of gold inside, which he uses to build wealth and security for his family.

Kaguya-hime eventually attracts five suitors (hence the five daggers on the kimono), and she sends them each on an impossible task as a way to stall their marriage proposals. 

After many trials, and a marriage proposal from the emperor himself, Kaguya-hime reveals that she is from the moon and was sent to Earth as punishment for a crime she committed and that the gold was sent by her family as a way to support her while she was living out her sentence. 

Her lunar family eventually returns to Earth so they can bring her back home. As a parting gift, Kaguya-hime gives her parents her own kimono so they can have a way to always remember her.

The story plays heavily into the patches that were created for this kimono. The central patch on the back shows a baby Kaguya-hime resting atop a flower against the backdrop of a full moon which is surrounded by bamboo leaves and other floral elements to denote the wooded environment in which she was found. The lunar moth denotes her journey back to her family on the moon, and the eyes are meant to represent her family on the moon watching over her from above. As discussed previously, the five daggers (three on the back and two on the front) represent her five earthly suitors. 

Techniques and Materials: The patches on this kimono are all crafted from vintage kimono remnants and feature sashiko embroidery using metallic thread thrifted from Texas Art Asylum. The thread used for the outer stitching is a white cotton threat that was also thrifted from Texas Art Asylum. Although Daniel originally wanted to go with a “witchier” design for this kimono, he realized that doing highly detailed embroidery on it would fight against the colorful patterns already printed on vintage kimono remnants. Instead of forcing his creative vision onto the kimono, he decided to let the fabric do the talking and serve as the creative direction for the final design. The metallic sashiko embroidery that he ended up doing provides a nice pop of color to the fabric without overpowering it. 

This is a unisex, black heavy cotton haori coat that can fit up to women's size Large or up to men's size Medium. Includes handmade himo ties at the center front which tie together as a closure. Can we worn open or closed.