Okay, so today I dove into the world of kei ninomiya. Honestly, I’d seen some of the pieces online before, and they always looked so intricate and, well, a bit intimidating! But I decided to take the plunge and see if I could figure out how some of those signature looks are achieved.
First, I spent a good chunk of time just looking. Seriously, just scrolling through images, runway shows, everything I could find. I wanted to get a feel for the common threads, the techniques that kept popping up.
The Experiment Begins
I grabbed some black fabric scraps – mostly cotton and a bit of faux leather I had lying around – and started to play. No patterns, no real plan, just trying to mimic some of the shapes and textures I’d seen.
- Ruching and Gathering: This seemed like a big one. I tried different ways of gathering the fabric, sometimes using elastic thread, sometimes just hand-stitching and pulling. It’s trickier than it looks to get that really dense, textured effect!
- Layering: Another key element. I experimented with layering different lengths and shapes of fabric, pinning them together to see how they fell.
- Unconventional Fastenings: I noticed a lot of pieces seemed to be held together with things other than traditional seams – like ties, or even just strategically placed pins. I tried using some safety pins to create a sort of draped effect, and it actually looked kind of cool!
I am not gonna lie, I did make my self a dress. The dress turned out pretty messy, to be honest. The proportions were a bit off, and the fabric didn’t always behave the way I wanted it to. But that’s okay! It was all about experimenting and learning.
The whole process was a bit chaotic, but super fun. I’ve got a much better appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into these * is not just throwing fabric together, it is like, sculpting with it. And after I success, I might try something a bit more ambitious next time!
