Japanese Kimono Wedding Gown designed by Hanae Mori

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Directory: Vintage Arts: Regional Art: Asian: Japanese: Textiles: Pre 1980: Item # 460146

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Asian Art By Kyoko
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Los Angeles
California, USA

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Elegant Japanese kimono wedding gown (Uchikake) designed by Hanae Mori. The gown displays the designer’s logo without a signature; her butterflies and initials are woven all over the red liner. Hanae Mori is truly the first and most famous international Japanese designer of the 20th century. She not only contributed to the Japanese clothing industry but to many other areas since the rebuilding time of Japan after WWII. A year after she opened a boutique in Paris, she became the only asian woman to be invited to join La Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne. It is the prestigious designer’s governing body previously dominated by European men. She served there 27 years and contributed much of her unique talent using a rich resource of textile from her homeland as well as many other part of the world. She is responsible for bringing Japanese people the newest European fashion trends. She received the “Order of Culture” in Japan in 1996 and later was named an “Officier de la Legion d’Honneur” in Paris in 2002. I believe she was retired a couple years ago.

The fabric of this gown is thick but coarse with a hemp-like appearance. Placed under the sun light (as shown as in the detailed photos), the beautiful iridescent colors shows up as specks of light shine through the layer of trees in the forest. The word ‘subtle’ comes to mind. This gown is hand sewn meticulously to perfection which is unusually common in older kimonos but not so much in new kimonos. The condition is new with some basting stitches still intact. The gown is very modestly priced for the quality. Please see my note for the price.

The measures are: 52 inches W x 76 inches L

NOTE:
Months ago I called my friend in Japan. I needed to find out about one Uchikake that I purchased (with many other gowns). I had a gown that the dealer said that it had a price tag of $6000.00 for the rental! The gown was nice but ordinary. This gown will be listed later if it still had not. What my friend said was that the average price for renting a wedding gown(for a wedding) is around $2500 to $3000.00 today. The price does not include accessories like the wig, under kimono, obi, shoes, make-ups etc. She actually laughed at me when I said that mine was about $1000.00 for a day. I suppose you can only rent a cheap gown with $2000.00 today and $6000 rental gown in today's price is a little pricey but nothing unordinary. My California friend who recently attended a traditional Japanese wedding confirmed this information. In the wedding, the bride was to wear a $6000 rental-wedding gown. I suppose that everybody expected to see a gorgeous Uchikake. They ended up being disappointed. I was told that the cost was the one major reason that everyone stopped having a traditional wedding today. The cost of making one decent gown must had gone up beyond our understanding.

What we are offering here is a beautiful gown in great quality and condition. We cannot even imagine the original cost when it was made. I could afford only a handkerchief carrying the name of Hanae Mori at the time.