This is blue ladies swimwear fabric--stretch and moderately thick--with obi patches from 2 obis on it. The sleeves are removeable turning the jacket in summers into a vest of the circa 1890 sort. They sleeves are wider and longer than needed--adds a "rich"ish look. The hat, as usual for me, came with some shit material I threw away and replaced with a 25$ ladies belt (the double rows of sparkles on red leather background). It makes me look a bit fat due to the scarf and vest underneath. Actually these days I am leaner than I have been for the previous 30 years---due to teaching grad students from 40 EU nations at Keio.
The suit was designed and made, I think, about 1995. You can tell because one obi is MUCH better and more beautiful than the other---at that time I did not distinguish, well enough, good from average obi materials. Also at that time I was breaking mindless symmetry habits in me but here only by material choice not by shapes.
Most of my suits--not all--have obi material cuffs. I dislike jackets without cuffs--the material hangs and get caught or eats puddings and knocks over drinks. I have kimono shirts I wear, also with cuffs, so there is conflict for the same wrist space at times---I choose to live with that.
The back of this suit is a mindless set of 3 shapes--which manage to dominate attention in crowds---there simply is NO other clothing anywhere with these types of mindless shapes on them, made out of expensive going-out-of-existence weaves (obis in Japan).
The vest is of the same period. Out of uchikake--wedding kimono. Notice here the asymmetry from mere material use works better--the left side facing it rather empty and the right side rather crowded with figures. I like this effect.
I plan to FIRST SELL such vests someday soon and one of my design principles for vests is patterns on BOTH front and back. I really resent how ordinary couture designers pattern fronts more than backs---because they have cheap minds and tastes I think. In cocktail parties, people notice the backs of my vests and jackets LONG before noticing my face and front--inherent in human shyness with strangers.
The pants leg has triangle shapes down the side, distortedly visible here. No particular reason for these shapes but this--a large obi triangle at the bottom with the triangle base at the pants leg bottom, has weight and stiffness that makes the pants material swing with each step in a fashion that look rich-ish.
At places where I dine (snobby choice of word) when I remove my jacket above, revealing this vest, I hear ooo's and ahhhhh's from around the room--people respond viscerally to bright wedding colors and patterns of uchikake kimono material.
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