Meiko’s Hakama and Kimono Set from Gochisousan with Strawberry Embroidery

A kimono and hakama set with black leather boots. The kimono is white with a small geometrical design of purple arrowheads, and the inner collar is pink with strawberries, strawberry leaves and strawberry flowers embroidered on it. The obi is red with white asanoha, or geometrical star patterns on it, and it is mostly covered by the ties of the hakama. The hakama are a pair of reddish-purple pants with very wide legs, pleated at the front so that they look more like a skirt. It is worn slightly above the waist, and ties in the front. The bow droops down, and the ends of the ties extend towards the knees. There is a reddish-purple hairbow to go with the ensemble.Today’s drawing was inspired by one of the most popular dramas currently running on Japanese TV, “Gochisōsan,” which means something like “thank you for the meal” and is said after eating. It follows the life of Meiko Uno, a girl born in the early 1900s who is brash, big-hearted and a huge fan of food. The word used in Japanese is 食いしん坊, kuishinbō; English approximations might be “foodie” or “glutton” but the first is too serious and the second too severe. “Kuishinbō” is more like a lightly teasing word for someone who’s really into eating. Meiko reminds me very much of Anne of Green Gables, as she’s always getting into scrapes, but even though she can be careless and selfish, she has a warm, loving personality and always wants to make things better for the people she loves. Her love of food and her desire to share that love is the major theme of the show. Her family runs a French restaurant called Kaimeiken that becomes a pioneer of Japanese-Western fusion cuisine, all the chapter titles are food-related puns and many of Meiko’s problems and their solutions happen to be related to food. For those of us interested in Japanese food and its history, it’s full of fun details. For example, Meiko, a Tokyo native, later moves to another city called Osaka, where she unknowingly causes discomfort by making rice balls with the wrong shape: she is used to making them in a triangle shape, but at that point in time in Osaka, triangle-shaped rice balls are only used for funeral offerings. (It’s not a distinction anyone makes anymore, so please don’t get creeped out when you see triangle-shaped rice balls in your favorite anime.) The show follows her life from her childhood to her time as a high school student, then to her time as a young bride and, later, a mother of three. It is what’s known as a morning drama, and it runs every weekday morning for 15 minutes.

This drawing is of a kimono and hakama set worn with boots, which is what Meiko and her friends wear as young women when they’re attending the same high school. Hakama, which are the reddish-purple pants tied at the waist, were traditionally a garment only worn by men, but in the Meiji era, which was a time of quick modernization for Japan, women involved in education and similar activities done outside the home started to wear them as well. This served to lend their outfits a masculine, serious air. This combination of kimono and hakama became so identified with female students that today, it’s worn as formal wear at graduations. The modern day version tends to be more flashy and richly patterned, but this drawing is based on what Meiko wore as her daily uniform, with hakama that are all one color and a plain arrow pattern woven into the kimono fabric. This arrow pattern, too, is so heavily associated with Meiji and Taisho-era female students as to be a cliché, and one of the kimono Meiko wears has a pattern that’s almost identical.

In the first few episodes of the show, which show Meiko as a young girl, she and her friends steal an offering of strawberries from the neighborhood Buddhist temple. At the time strawberries weren’t widely grown in Japan, so to them, the bright red berries were a new and exotic sight. Meiko, with her deep appreciation of flavor, falls in love with the sweet and tangy taste and becomes preoccupied with finding some to give to her sick grandmother. That’s why, for this drawing, I put a little strawberry pattern on the collar.

There’s a group (of one person) subtitling these; you can download the subtitles at their website. They also have written up some very useful commentary notes for some of the weeks they’ve subtitled. I don’t watch the show with English subtitles, so I can’t do tech support – you’ll be better off by looking for information at the Drama Addicts forum or finding a site where they’ve been uploaded. Drama.net looks fine but I don’t know anything about it. I watch it in Japanese with Japanese subtitles using an iPad app, J-Drama Master, and I understand maybe 80% of it, but that last 20% is all the most important stuff, so when there’s a very technical or emotionally intense scene I often wind up thinking “Hey, wait, what?”

There’s a contest going on! In the poll I did over Twitter, ancient Greek fashions won handily, with 8 votes, over a fairy dress (3 votes) or a 1930s dress (0 votes). So I have been reading all about ancient Greek fashions and setting up a Pinterest board, and I’ve sketched a Greek outfit for the winner of the next poll to tell me how to color. If you use Twitter, follow me, then vote by replying to @lianapaperdolls with your favorite Greek god or goddess. (Having the contests on Facebook and Twitter was an experiment, and I ended up not liking the feeling that I was excluding people. So all further contests are going to be on this blog.)

Next week, there’ll be a new doll! That’s right, Mia is going to get a friend, and I intend for her to be the first of many. I’ll be opening voting up on her name as well, so watch my various social media spaces if you want to join in! You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for update notifications, previews of upcoming dresses, paper doll musings and pictures of sparkly clothes. If you enjoy my work, I’d also appreciate your support through Patreon.


Queens of the Sea #9: Red Patchwork Tunic for Winnie Flapjack from Random Magic by Sasha Soren

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Welcome to day nine of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Winnie Flapjack: The Future Pirate Queen

Winnie Flapjack is the main character from Random Magic, a girl of distinctly piratical disposition who bests a pirate king and finds her own destiny waiting for her on the waves.

She crosses paths with bemused book-jumper Henry Witherspoon when he quite accidentally helps her rescue herself from a fate worse than death.

Orphaned at birth and essentially a scrappy loner with a gift for magic and sarcasm, she’s brave, feisty, abrupt, resourceful, very loyal and also very tricky.

As Henry soon finds out, he’ll have reason to thank his lucky stars a thousand times for having Winnie by his side — if the experience doesn’t kill him, first.

Winnie is described as wearing a red patchwork tunic; I pulled out all my most random colors for the fabric scrap patterns, because this is indeed a very random book! I still do intend to review it, but I’m not finished with it yet so I don’t want to review it prematurely. When I do, I’ll post it here.

Tomorrow is the last day for this series, and I’m going to have two polls: one for your favorite pirate story out of the ten, and one for your favorite pirate outfit. I’ll definitely do another outfit for the winner of “favorite outfit” — if I’m really ambitious, I might do a second outfit for the one who wins “favorite story.” I’ll try to get it up nice and early, so don’t forget to come by and vote!

The contests will be open until May 27th, 11:59 PM Pacific time. So if you haven’t entered, be sure to write your comment today! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!


Queens of the Sea #8: Green Justacorps for Anne Dieu-Le-Veut

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Welcome to day eight of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Anne Dieu-Le-Veut: The Brave Buccaneer

A buccaneer during the Golden Age of Piracy. She was originally from France, and deported from France to Tortuga by the order of governor Betrand d’Ogeron de la Bouere, himself a former adventurer and pirate.

She fought a duel with a Dutch pirate who’d killed her first husband. He was impressed with her courage in challenging him and asked her to marry him on the spot. He already had a wife whom he’d abandoned, but from that day forward they were recognized as partners and fought side
by side on raids, sharing command.

Anne had a reputation for being laconic, brave, and willful. She also didn’t back down, and this was how she earned her nickname (Anne Dieu-Le-Veut, or Anne What-God-Wants), as people said of her that what Anne wanted, God would make happen for her.

Although it was a common superstition at the time that a woman on board brought bad luck, Anne’s presence was considered lucky. Reportedly born circa 1650, she disappeared from recorded history in the early 1700s.

In my imagination, there was certainly at least one time in Anne’s life where what she most wanted was a sweet pirate coat and gloriously shiny boots. Who can say whether or not the Almighty granted that particular request, or indeed any of them; at least I can, although it is rather too late for her to enjoy it. In any case, this kind of coat is called a justacorps, and it’s what we think of — or, at least, what I think of — when we think of over-the-top pirate captains from the Golden Age of Piracy.

So, I’m quite behind on my pirate series, I’m sorry to say; today was supposed to be the last day, but I still have two left, so I’ll do one tomorrow and one on the 26th, which is when the final poll will be open.

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!


Carousel Outfit by Bitter Lilly and Fan-Made Dresses from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.
The drawing on the far left was done by Bitter Lilly for Valentine’s Day. (I’m sorry it took me so long to put it up!) I don’t know the image that inspired her that she refers to on her original post, but I love how soft and ethereal it looks, especially the turtleneck — you can almost feel it, and if I had a turtleneck like that I would always keep petting my own arms and people would look at me strangely.

Bitter Lilly has also colored some of the black and white gowns I have up, as well as drawn a couple more original outfits; check out her DeviantArt page, specifically the “Liana” gallery (although there are some lovely photos on her main page as well!)

These days I don’t get too many fan submissions of outfits that fit my dolls; I suspect a lot of that energy has gone into people creating their own paper doll blogs, as a glance over my blogroll can attest. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my little subculture? I have high hopes of us landing on the xkcd Map of Online Communities someday, on a little island right near “Diary Blogs” and “Writing/Poetry”.) But back when I did the Boutique, I did have some people send in some great outfits.

Click for the doll.

The blue gown and the yellow jacket with a white skirt are actually by my cousin Becky; if you’ve been paying attention you may remember her from this purple gown and this fairy dress. The pink and green hoopskirt was by someone who wanted to be called “Anonymous” and of course, I’ve lost the original e-mail so I can’t credit her properly ten years later. I had to go back through my files to place a name on most of these, but the geometric blue evening dress is evidently by Emily. Jedi Guinastasia did quite a few for me, particularly a number of dresses from Titanic; the layered dress from Titanic and the blue gown are by her.

Now, how is that for a really lazy post? I didn’t draw a single part of it! Well, I will be back from my trip soon, so look for a new dress in a couple of days!