It all started when with a huge fascination about Japanese cultures and history but Kimonos have kinda lost the masculine appeal while retaining the intricate and beautiful depictions reserved only for the female form.
I do like Kimonos a lot but I would say I appreciate them wrapping petite Japanese females like little presents than on the males. Thru my tour of duty here in Japan, males are hardly seen in Kimonos unless at Weddings or Funerals. Besides, it's a lot easier to drape a male in Kimonos since dressing a female is pretty much an ancient art like tea ceremony. Other reasons which I presume would be that the Bushido depiction of a male clad in Samurai Kimonos might seems a little violent and not generally accepted.
Nonetheless, I do not like the typical wedding kimonos for males since they tend to be a little bland and dull for my taste. Instead the "Ronin" or lone wanderer Samurai appeal seems to protray a more subtle but mysterious aura which I really like. And I have absolutely no intention to stick any Katanas in my Obi to complete the look. I kinda felt that a simple Bushido Kimono with the clogs would be a nice style from the warring eras in this modern society that we life in. I do know that not many people fancy it but that's not really my issue anyway.
The one Samurai that I draw most influences from is Sakamoto Ryoma (坂本龍馬). The other famous names in history had huge helmets, armors and are battle ready which would be ridiculous if worn without a good cause.
This was the replica of the Kimono Sakamoto wore with the family emblem on the sleeves. But I presume the light grey hakama, though very cool would be dirtied easily so I am actually looking at Toshizo's version.
Eventhough these are not the original pieces, they are still pretty costly raking in close to SGD$1k.
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