I started collecting kimonos some time ago. I got somewhat carried away and the quantity I owned got very out of hand, filling an entire room with large boxes of them, with a hefty overspill of boxes in a second room too. I decided to sell many of them, reclaiming some space, recouping some of the money I spent on them and allowing me to still buy another one now and then
Wafuku.co.uk is a one woman operation; I selected and bought all the items, catalogued them, photograph them, I designed, made and maintain the site and database, designed the brochure and business cards etc and deal with all the emails, packaging and posting and everything else required. The only assistance I get is from my daughter when she models some of the kimonos for me.
I also have an eBay ID; wafuku-vintage-kimonos. Ebay provides a busy, worldwide 'shop window' and gives me the opportunity to inform people about this site, if they enlarge my item photos. You can use my ebay ID to check my eBay feedback, which lets you check customer opionion where you know I cannot have edited it in any way.
Almost all my Japanese items are vintage ones because that is what I prefer. The fabrics are exceptional, as is the quality, and they have been owned by Japanese people, not made to be marketed to the west or to tourists, it makes them seem more genuine and more Japanese to me. It also makes them affordable, as even the plainest, brand new, pure silk, hand sewn kimono would cost thousands of pounds (£ UK GBP), so would be impossible for most of us to ever own.
I offer genuine, vintage and antique Japanese items of prime quality, in wonderful condition, with clear and honest descriptions and plenty of photographs. If you seek authentic Japanese traditional garments of all kinds, you will find I have a large variety for both men and women and even some for children plus a smattering of other Japanese goodies. Feel free to email me about any further information you think I may be able to offer about the items on my site.
One must bear in mind that most are vintage items, which I strive to describe accurately and honestly. A very few smell of mothballs or a touch of vintage mustiness, most do not. I usually mention it in the listing if one does but one must bear it in mind as a possibility when buying vintage and antique items.
Please be aware that different monitors display colour slightly differently, so colour in photos is purely a guideline, as I can't foresee how your monitor will display it. While I try to describe colour sometimes, a description often conjours up one colour to one person but may suggest a different colour to another, so, again, colour description is just a guide to colour. Please also note that I don't accept returns or exchanges due to garment colour, the purchaser's personal taste, mothball/vintage smell or the fit of the garment (which can be judged by measurements given).
Feel free to ask any questions about delivery or the items on my site.
I now have a Wafuku Blog (opens in a new window/tab) and am on Twitter as Wafuku_kimonos
*NOTE I cannot give a value for other people's items nor suggest garment ages for them and I am not buying more stock. If looking for a valuation of an item you own, I suggest looking at my items, finding something similar to yours and going by the price of that.
The 'geisha' in the garden, shown below, is my long suffering daughter, who patiently allows me to photograph her in an endless array of kimonos to display on my site, allowing people to see what many of them look like when on. In the photo below, she is wearing one of her own kimonos; that's the kimono that made me feel I had to own one of my own and got my addiction to kimonos started
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