7dec14 What Richard Wears

On a background of shining gold stretch material, somewhat thick so comfortable in winter, are patches in diagonal areas, of two obis.   The cuffs are greatly enlarged and the obis, finely machine woven, so they do not "shed" and "become raggety" like usual obis.  Wakes up entire train stations, neighborhoods, and hotel lobbies.  

The back of the above jacked showing more clearly, at a distance, the diagonal arrangement of the two obi patterns.   

 This is my Lt. Warf (from Star Trek Next Generation) jacket made of descending rows of many collars, epaulets, and giant cuffs.  The sleeves and body panels are two obis mixed and the descending collars are four obis mixed.   The sleeves are split on the sides with thin silk material sewn at 4 points so bending is easy and does not strain the material (obi material spreads and break easily).   

 This is the back of the above Lt. Warf jacket.  Invisible in it is a large middle triangle of zip fastened material that is removed in summer exposing a thin silk pattern material that makes the jacket comfortable on hot days.  

 This is a gorgeous patterned (not easily seeable unless blown up) black silk kimono shirt (with collar cover, enlarged collar-sleeves-cuffs) but the purpose of the photo is the pants--to show the side pattern using the same two obis combined as in the jacket.  Since these obis are tightly machine woven, larger panels on the legs can succeed without becoming raggety.  

If you magnify this photo you see the gorgeous pattern in this black kimono shirt (with zip front, enlarged sleeves-cuffs-collar as usual).   

The necktie was just a piece of leftover shiny gold that I put over the inside of an ugly tie whose covering material I tore off.  The tie is now  38 years old, worn hundreds of time and, as you can see, looks good as new.  

This is a belt from my favorite belt place--Bling-on-a-Budget.  They have the largest selection but MOST IMPORTANT---this belt I have worn for 3 years now, nearly every day and NOT ONE diamond like sparkly spangle has fallen off.  There are LOTS of other bling-y belts whose sparkles fall off while you unwrap them for a first seeing and every time you wear them the floor has a trail of them (that have fallen off).   

I thought I was huge and made the mistake of ordering XXX size but it turns out American XXX size will wrap elephants (which I am not), so I had to put lots of extra holes in the belts.   More recently I ordered L size and that fits me perfectly.