Women's Pink Japanese Kimono 'Nobana'

Pink and red flowers with dark grass lines on cream, and a teal sash

The flowers on this kimono are the Japanese ones, drawn the Japanese way: chrysanthemums with their many petals, plum blossom with five, dahlias and small rounds, in pink, red, white and a little gold, scattered across a cream ground with long dark lines of grass sweeping between them like brushstrokes. The grass is what makes the print. Without it the flowers would float; with it they grow. The obi is teal, wide and crinkled, and against the warm cloth it is the one cool colour, the water under the garden.

It is the most classically Japanese of the women's florals, the pattern of a yukata from a print by the old masters, and the teal obi is a modern choice that keeps it from looking like a reproduction.

The name, Nobana, means wild flowers, the ones that grow by the road rather than in the garden, and the grasses between the blooms are the road.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the pinks kept clean and the grass lines kept dark and thin. The cloth is polyester with a dry, matte hand, chosen because a cream this pale must stay pale through washing and a red this red must not run, and because a kimono for warm days should hang light.

The obi is included, a wide teal sash with a crinkled texture that wraps twice and ties at the back. Cross the fronts left over right, tie the obi, and the kimono closes into a long cream column with the flowers scattered down it and the teal band across the middle.

At three metres it is pink on cream with dark lines through it. At thirty centimetres each chrysanthemum shows its petals, the plum blossom shows its five, and the grasses show the flick at the end of each stroke. It is a print drawn by someone who had looked at the old ones.

The cut is long, falling to the ankle, with wide sleeves and a wrap front that adjusts at the waist. Tied, it is a dress for a summer festival that wants to look traditional. Open over white, it is a robe with a roadside in bloom on it.

It comes in one size, cut long with a generous wrap. It is Asian sizing and runs small, so it sits closer than a Western one-size; the wrap and the obi give the room, and set the waist where you want it.