This world is a fascinating and wonderful place.

A few months ago, a Japanese crowdfund project wandered over my feed and I immediately backed it. Kimono artist Remake-ya Candy and photographer Sato Hiroko were collaborating on a photo album of women wearing men’s kimono. Candy’s goal is to bring kimono back as daily wear, and Sato is a photographer who combines whimsical and classical beautifully. They seemed like a great collaboration for this “genderless kimono” project.

This week I received my copy of the Josei ga Otoko Kimono o Kiru Shashin-shuu (女性が男着物を着る写真集) and it gets a two-thumbs up from me. Because the pictures from the album itself have not been shared publicly, I’m only sharing here an image from the Campfire campaign page and the cover, but I strongly recommend following both Sato and Candy on Twitter for fun kimono photos.

First of all, I loved the premise. No surprise. But surprisingly, I actually loved most of the photoshoots. Each model is wearing a custom kimono that really suits them, then they are photographed multiple times in settings around a city, cafe or photoshoot set for maximum mood. Really lovely photos. As a testament to both kimono maker and photographer, this book is excellent.

The final pages include some backers who chose to participate in a photoshoot in genderless kimono. In many ways these are even better, as they are just everyday people who are wearing such incredible clothing and looking so damn good doing it, that it makes one want to run out and hire both Candy and Sato.

The campaign was a raging success, bring in nearly 3x the initial goal, with 132 backers. That indicates to me, that most of the backers threw a lot of money at this project. I know I would sure have participated at a higher level if I was in Japan. ^_^

I don’t often review crowdfunding rewards on Okazu for several reasons. One, if the book is not available for sale, that usually makes it awkward. And, quite often the reward is…okay. It wasn’t why I backed the project. In this case, the photo album is lovely and will definitely find a place on my shelves next to Tokyo Bois! and a few other queer-friendly photo books I have. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Really fun to flip through and appreciate fashion and location…and models. ^_^

Via YNN Correspondent Amy M, take a look at this NHK video on kimono artist Candy for some fun looks.