The Grauniad wrote:Can Kate save the kimono?
First the Duchess of Cambridge did it on her first royal tour of Asia, then Prada followed suit just a few weeks ago – both offered a new take on the traditional Japanese kimono. Could this new prominence be a sign that an outfit that means "something that you wear" in Japanese is having a renaissance? Made from a bolt of cloth 12 metres long, the traditional kimono design, with typical geometric square sleeves, has changed little over the centuries. But its recent celebrity resurgence cannot hide the fact that the kimono industry is in decline as, outside a traditional geisha world known as "flower and willow", most Japanese women have switched to wearing western clothes, only bringing out kimonos for formal occasions, if at all.
"In the old days nearly all our customers wore kimonos every day," says Yoshio Hada, who has worked in the kimono section of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo for 50 years. "Now there are very few." Cost, practicality and fashion have all had an impact on the popularity of Japan's traditional clothing. There are so many complicated rules for wearing kimonos that many Japanese women today have never learned how to do it properly and are fearful of getting it wrong.
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