I was feeling rather disillusioned by my recent failture with kimono number 5, but my next kimono was a resounding success. This pink Rinzu kimono uses three separate techniques - Bokashi watercolour dyeing to give the background silk a shimmer, plus kanoko shibori and boshi shibori to create the pattern.

I fell in love with the sugar-pink colour of this kimono and didn't know at the time that it was Rinzu. It was also my first purchase from a new vendor, Ryujapan. When it arrived, I realised it was the 'feel' of kimono I'd been searching for - very negligee like and feminine. The lining was also beautiful, with the hakkake (bottom section) dyed in an ombre style. 

Kanoko (deer-dot) shibori is a technique in which small sections of fabric are looped with threads and pulled tight, which acts as a resist. It produces a white ring on the fabric similar to the markings on a young fawn.  Boshi shibori uses an item such as a cork or a coin to provide an area of resist or which can be dipped into dye - in this kimono, this is how the red 'flowers' are created. 

It is part of the Japanese aesthetic that the design of the Rinzu should oppose the pattern applied to it - hence leaves and streams in the silk itself, and flowers applied on top.  

I shortened this kimono to ankle-length and took up the ombre lining from the doura (top lining) rather than the hakkake (bottom lining) in order to preserve the ombre shading. I find this kimono very pleasing and feminine to wear.