Deciding on the New Kimono Design
I spent the next week thinking hard about it.
I really gave it my all, but I just couldn’t quite come up with a layout that felt right.
More accurately, I had some ideas, but I kept worrying if they were actually okay.
Anyway, I decided to sketch it out for now.
“Hmm, I’ll put Talat in the center, with Kiblinki Saltas next to him. I should probably draw Parfe too, since they’re likely to increase in number.”
In the center of my sketchbook, I drew a pure white spider representing Talat, a brown spider representing Kiblinki Saltas to the left, and Parfe to the right.
Now, here’s where things get tricky.
“They said the lilies of the valley could go toward the bottom, but… yeah, that feels off. I’ll have them arching between Talat and Kiblinki Saltas.”
I sketched the lily of the valley flowers so they stretched between Talat and Kiblinki Saltas.
So far, so good.
“Next, I need to fit in the three symbols: the red rose, that white flower, and the cherry blossom.”
With kimono designs, you typically build the whole theme around a central motif.
In this case, the centerpiece was Talat, so it made sense to build around that.
Given that, the lilies of the valley worked, but the others just felt like they got in the way.
I really wasn’t sure what to do.
“Hmm… maybe the rose first. But wait, anything above here would be hidden by the sash… maybe I’ll put it on the left chest area.”
I quickly sketched a red rose over the left chest area.
That should take care of the rose.
That just left the white flower and the cherry blossoms.
Technically, I could leave them out, but it’d look too plain, and only using one would apparently cause political headaches… hmm?
Maybe I could just put them one on each sleeve?
“Alright! I’ll put the white flower on the left sleeve and the cherry blossoms on the right!”
I went ahead and sketched out motifs of each flower on the corresponding sleeve.
That creepy white flower actually looked pretty good when worked into a pattern!
“Then, I’ll use a cloud motif for the background.”
Uh, was it called kumodori?
Anyway, I applied a swirling cloud design throughout.
I made sure all the flowers were in front of the clouds so nobody could accuse me of hiding them.
I chose a pale sky blue for the overall color… there!
“Alright, this might work!”
The overall image was done!
Now, all I needed was approval from everyone involved.
As for their reactions…
“Hmm, looks good to me.”
Said Plum.
“Seems fine, no problems here.”
Said Marquis Vardmoi.
“I think it’s nice. It feels like you, especially with Talat there.”
Said Amira.
So, it seems I ended up with a pretty safe design.
As a designer, I can’t help feeling a little conflicted, but political statements through clothing are way beyond me right now.
This will have to do.
As for actually making the final product… I can put that off a bit.
I’ve got to go pick up Parfes soon after all.
I wonder how they’re doing. Hope they’re happy and healthy.
What do you think about this chapter?
Thanks for the chapter.