KABUKIMONO Silk Pongee Medium

This is a long-sleeved shirt with a shirt collar made of tsumugi silk with a navy blue background and a red, yellow, and green check pattern. The back, sides, and armholes are neatly tailored with a flat-felled seam. Buttons are attached to match each shirt.

Originating from the Japanese kimono

From the 19th to the 20th century, Japanese immigrants to Hawaii worked in sugar plants and agriculture. They favored palaka shirts (open-collar shirts believed to have been worn by European sailors) as work clothes because they resembled Japanese cotton kasuri. As the kimonos and yukatas they brought with them became worn, they would use the scraps to make palaka-style shirts for their children. The unique colors and patterns of the kimonos became popular among local people, and gradually open-collar shirts made from the new kimono and yukata fabrics became popular, marking the beginning of the modern-day aloha shirt.

Beautiful and high-quality tailoring

Unfortunately, in today's Japan, only a select few wear kimonos, and an increasing number of people simply discard their kimonos. We wanted to preserve Japan's precious culture, so we went back to the past and tailored aloha shirts from vintage kimonos, hoping that anyone could easily pick them up and wear them. We unraveled the threads of each kimono, carefully washed them, and carefully considered the pattern to suit modern times. We sewed them with a flat-felled seam so that the seams would not be visible on the inside. Made from silk, the aloha shirts have a wonderful texture and are soft, conforming to the body and extremely comfortable to wear. The kimono patterns also exude dignity and elegance.

One-of-a-kind kimono aloha

Because each kimono aloha is carefully handcrafted, we cannot produce many at once. This may seem counterintuitive to the current trend, but we believe that time is of the heart. We create our products with the desire to carefully and faithfully convey Japan's precious culture. We named this initiative the KABUKIMONO Project, a play on the words kimono and kabuki performer. When you try on a kimono, you will undoubtedly experience the wonderful smooth comfort of silk.