「平安姫の着物撮影」RinRin x SALZ Heian Kimono

Back in March RinRin called me about a fun kimono collaboration in the cherry blossoms.
She just had her hair re-dyed in nice colours for the season and was looking to create a fun lookbook for her YouTube channel. (For those who may not know RinRin – she is an American-Japanese Model and YouTuber.)

Everything was a bit wild, trying to schedule all sorts of people together with the weather and forecast of the perfect bloom of the sakura aka. cherry blossom.
But in the End we managed to do a little picnic and had a great video and photo shoot in Tokyo.

桜の季節に撮影したくなりますよね。モデル・ユーチューバーRinRinもそう感じて、「一緒に綺麗な着物撮影しない？」との話が流れてきた。もちろん！やってみたい！
色々な方のスケジュールを満開と天気に合わせるのは難しかったけど、最後になんとかなりました。（笑）

As for the visuals I wanted to do something new and challenge myself as well as pick something fitting for RinRin.
Since she is being called “RinRin Doll” and because of her wonderful long hair, she reminded me of a beautiful princess. A princess from the Heian period (794 – 1185) which usually were draped in various layers of kimono and had their hair long and trailing in the back.

ビジュアル的には自分にチャレンジそして「RinRin Doll」らしいスタイリングを考えてみた。長い美しい髪の毛と姫カットと言えば・・平安時代の姫様みたい！！♡

Since going for 100% authenticity would be difficult and also me thinking of this style as not super flattering I tried to approach the topic from a rather modern perspective.
Instead of layering many kimono I had the idea to layer many collars in rainbow colours and set a contrast with a black kimono. Ah, and let’s not forget the rainbow obi I finally could bring to great use.

もちろん100％にはいけないし、平安時代の服装もそんなに（言っちゃうね：）女性らしい・素敵でもないので、少しモダンの姫さんにしたいなぁと。十二単みたいに何枚着物を重ねるのも大変（古着の寸法もバラバラ・・）なので、重ね襟でなんとか出来そう！！十二単風味（笑）

Here is how I prepared all the collars:（準備中）

I wanted to have the kimono trail and open up subtle in the front and show the red juban below but both strong wind at the location and lack of length made everything difficult haha. The juban (under-kimono) was also too short, but thats nothing new with antique items..

Even with heavy conditions like super crazy wind, we managed to get some great shots.
Hope you will enjoy them, even the cherry blossom season is already overdue.

着物はお引きずりみたいに長く、中の赤い襦袢を見せたかったけど、強風と長さの問題で思い通りにはいかなかったw
アンティーク襦袢の長さも足りなくて許して下さい。
それでも素敵な写真と動画は出来上がりました。

And apart from these great pictures, we also had a videographer shoot and cut an amazing video which you should definitely check out!
ルックブックもみてみて！

Thank you again for having me, RinRin!
I had a great time and am very happy how everything turned out ♡

RinRin、ありがとうございます☆　楽しかったです！

A few days after we posted the pictures on social media, a fan drew an amazing illustration for us. I was over the moon （ ｉ _ ｉ ）
SNSに写真をアップしてから、ファンは撮影のイラストを描いてたの！キャー　♡

Thanks again to the whole team. 皆さん、お疲れ様でした！
Credits go to:
– Model RinRin: https://www.rinrindoll.com
– Cinematography Rescue the Princess: https://www.youtube.com/rescuetheprincess
– Photography Fabian Parkes: https://www.fabianparkes.com
– Styling/Dressing SALZ Tokyo