After only recently finding out that there is a shop specialising in vintage kimono in London, I went to meet Sonoe Sugawara, kimono dealer and owner of Furuki Yo-Kimono Vintage in Dalston yesterday. After mainly selling and displaying kimono at markets around London for over 10 years, Sugawara-san just recently moved into the newly opened independent business venue The Factory.
Furuki Yo-Kimono Vintage focuses mainly on kimono from the Taishō period, a great time for kimono fashion with new innovations and aesthetics emerging out of the forward-looking and democratic social context of the 1920s. Sugawara-san also collects imperial and samurai families’ wartime propaganda kimono, as well as Japanese folk workwear and textiles. I highly recommend a visit to anyone with an interest in kimono culture, to have a browse through the collection and a chat with the friendly and very knowledgable Sugawara-san!
DR CAROLIN BECKE 