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Back Catalogue: Derivative Kimono Design
- Rachel Goodchild
- Mar 12, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 12
The creating of a derivative Kimono design and how it was inspired by a vintage find from the 1920's.
I love rumaging around antique markets and vintage fairs. You never know what you are going to find. Back in 2004 I found a small box containing these 1920's napkins/ fabric placemats. They were made from delicate linen and each napkin had a diffrent photo of a Japanese lady that had then been hand-painted with colours. The fabric was falling apart, but the japanese ladies were still as elegent and detailed as when they were first painted. They sat in my draw for a couple of years until I decided to use them in a derivative form to bring them back to life. I was keen to keep the slightly old grubby look, so I intentionally kept in the small age marks and the creases in the fabric, in order to give them an aged look.
I turned these small fabric pieces into a range called Kimono. The range originally consisted of greetings card, gift wrap, gift tag and journal. When I was mainly selling gift packaging, this range was one of my big sellers for many years.
Later on, I couldnt resist experimenting with using Kimono on linen. Again, I wanted the design to look as though they were antique in feel and look, so I choose a earthy coloured linen for them to be printed onto. I always felt that Kimono worked better on textile, rather than on paper.
Kimono fabric samples
Taking Kimono back to napkins - taking them full circle over 90 years - to a slightly more modern approach to linen napkins (but by keeping the antique effect).
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