East Meets West with Elise Fischer’s 1950s Flair
This article was originally featured in the December 2024 issue of Connect.
Sabrina Greene (Chiba Prefecture)
What would you do with an old kimono? Maybe it has rips and stains from all the ceremonies and festivals it’s seen. Or maybe you don’t have any occasion to use it, so it sits gathering dust at the back of your closet. Some might throw it away or donate it, but such unwanted garments are like gold to seamstress and designer Elise Fischer.
It all started when her kimono teacher in the U.S. gave her a pile of old pieces. “I decided to take them apart with a seam ripper and then reuse the fabric in making dresses, pants, jackets—anything that suited my fancy.” And her fancy has a vintage flair: inspired by ‘50s skirts and dresses she inherited from her grandmother, she creates unique, culturally hybrid garments that now comprise her wardrobe.
In her Chiba apartment, Elise lays the pieces she’s made onto her bed to examine them. There’s a black, flapper-esque shift dress with opalescent embroidery at the skirt, a two-piece pencil skirt suit made of a heavy pink silk, and a flowy matching set with Art Nouveau sensibilities made from a watery robin’s egg silk. Matching vintage jewelry, thrifted and gifted, lies atop her dresser. With all these stylistic elements combined, the atmosphere she cultivates is captivating.
Elise is not alone in upcycling vintage kimono. Often made from silk, wool, and other fine materials, kimono are easy to repurpose into the small stuffed animals, coin purses, and hair clips found in many Tokyo souvenir shops. Brands like Relier81 and Tokyo Kimono Shoes also fashion them into footwear. Other designers like Far East Fabric and Re:MONO transform them into contemporary fashion items. (1)
“I want to use vintage fashion in my creations to remind us that we don’t have to alter our bodies to look fashionable or beautiful. Our bodies are already beautiful, and we can extend that beauty by using silhouette and traditional tailoring techniques.”
While these designers focus on bringing traditional kimono into a contemporary context, Elise sees a different opportunity. “We’re so used to fabric that conforms to the body rather than fabric that creates the body,” she says. Rather than follow changing body trends—like the waifish 1990s “heroin chic” or the 2010s curvy “Kardashian hips”—Elise prioritizes elements that give vintage styles their distinctive silhouettes, like shoulder pads and corsets. “I want to use vintage fashion in my creations to remind us that we don’t have to alter our bodies to look fashionable or beautiful. Our bodies are already beautiful, and we can extend that beauty by using silhouette and traditional tailoring techniques.” Kimono lend themselves well to this purpose, as they augment the body in a similar way to vintage Western fashions. Padding and obi, the waist sash, are added to give their wearers a tube shape. “I wanted to honor kimono in that way,” says Elise.
But where does one find old, unused kimono? Elise prefers secondhand shops like Second Street and Book Off. “Some of the staff told me they love the kimono section, but no one buys them. They were going to be thrown out at the end of the week.” She also frequents the fabric markets in Nippori, a Tokyo neighborhood. But her favorite way to source kimono is from her community in rural Chiba. “Just last night, a woman I know in her late 60s gave me her mother’s tomesode [short-sleeved kimono] and said, ‘if you don’t take it I’m going to throw it out.’” The opportunity to give new life to objects bound for the landfill is especially meaningful to Elise. “Would you rather pollute the environment and let it rot away, or would you rather see it sparkling and shining on you, your daughters, and your sons?” She plans to make a scarf from the tomesode to give back to her friend as a memento of her mother.
“The fabric decides the style, rather than the other way around…”
The kimono often need some TLC before they’re ready to be transformed. They can be faded and sun-bleached, stained, holey, or even moldy. To spruce them up, Elise removes the linings and gives each piece a thorough wash. Then, like a doctor at a hospital, she chooses the best treatment for each one: a dye job, or perhaps mending techniques from the early 1900s. At this point, Elise considers how much fabric she has to work with. “The fabric decides the style, rather than the other way around,” she says. “It’s a challenge, but it suits my needs. I believe that true creativity is born of constraint, and I’m constantly learning new techniques to suit the material I’m working with.”
Beyond the sentimental and environmental benefits of upcycling, Elise’s vintage Western kimono garments also serve as a historical cross-cultural bridge. “[Garment restructuring] dates back thousands of years,” she explains. “I want to preserve the memory of women, seamstresses, and tailors who have come before me.” This includes her great-grandmother, who was also a talented seamstress. Although Elise was raised in the U.S., she remains connected to her French heritage and draws inspiration from it. Japan and France have famously had a long love affair, particularly in the arts—French Impressionism is rife with Japanese influence, so much that a whole movement was named after it, Japonisme. French aesthetics have long been popular in Japan, too—for example, the classic ‘70s manga Rose of Versailles remains present in the cultural zeitgeist today. In university, Elise studied European fashion designers like Madeleine Vionnet and Elsa Schiaparelli, who drew from kimono silhouettes in their own designs. “I feel like I’m carrying that torch of mutual love,” says Elise.
Elise’s passion for fashion is lifelong, and she hopes to turn design into a full-time career. Whether in Japan or elsewhere, she doesn’t know, but inspiration abounds at every turn. Her next project is a 1920s-style suit made with fabrics she sourced in Tokyo. “I’m fond of the fashion appreciation here,” she says. “And I’m excited to continue connecting with fashion and sewing enthusiasts, wherever they may be.”
Sabrina Greene is the fashion editor at CONNECT. She lives in Chiba Prefecture. She loves vintage and thrifting and is excited to see the sustainable fashion movement gaining ground in Japan and abroad.
