Japan Times: Firms push 'digital' kimono to stay alive, in step
A few years ago, illustrator Yuko Iwakuma asked an acquaintance, an executive at kimono wholesaler Miyazaki Orimono Co., to come up with an inexpensive line of the traditional garb featuring simple Western-style patterns.
The Kyoto-based firm's solution: custom-made "digital kimono," whose patterns are designed using a personal computer and dyed onto the silk by ink-jet printer.
Last December, after spending three years developing the unconventional process, Miyazaki Orimono began selling digitally created kimono over the Internet. Then in late July, it opened an outlet called Okinu-ya-san in Minato Ward, Tokyo, to showcase its products.
One of its custom-made digitally printed kimono costs about 63,000 yen, less than one-third of the average price for a traditionally hand-dyed casual kimono.
...Tokyo-based kimono retailer Kururi Inc. started marketing its own digitally designed outfits in April at one of its three shops in Shibuya Ward, with prices starting at about 39,000 yen
Kururi Inc. site Here
I suppose this is a step up from having your picture on a T-shirt
