Years ago I made full size kimonos and other clothes based on Japanese clothing design. I designed my first collection in the early 70's, in the middle of a beautiful Japanese Samurai movie, basing my clothes on the skirts, vests and tops worn by the Samurai. I named my line of women's art-to-wear clothing "The Samuri Line".
I tried keeping an example of each design and style for my personal collection. As full size clothing takes up rather a lot of space, I got the idea to make up examples in miniature. I love miniature things anyway, so I made up a few in the small size before I realized I just didn't have time to translate everything into mini form.
However, I discovered that I love the mini-kimonos as sculptures, hanging on small wood stands we make, or as paintings, framed in the front opening display frames that Bill and I make.
THAI SILK MINI-KIMONO~ "IRIS"
These beautiful silks were swatches from Cassidy's Interiors in San Francisco. I saved them for decades, as they were very tiny pieces of fabric, so no full size clothing could be made from them. I knew that someday I'd figure out what to use them for!
More fabric from my late father-in-law: Thai silk he used in his interior decoration business. A lot of this was used for drapes. I got tons of it that he had left over, all shades of greens and golds and blues. The other colours are from swatch cards he had. His name was Bob McKenna, and he owned Cassidy's Interiors on Mission St. in San Francisco. The originator, Mr. Cassidy, had made a fortune in WWII producing black-out drapes which were sold all over the country. Bob worked for Mr. Cassidy, and in the 50's he bought the business, and his workroom made drapes, wall coverings and throw pillows for wealthy San Franciscans, as well as the museums and fancier hotels, among them the St. Francis, The Palace, and even the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite. He was thrilled that I wanted his leftovers, and I was equally thrilled to have access to all the great fabric! I even got leftovers of the original old drapes from the Awahnee!
