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Moon Installation #No 2

Moon Installation #no2 comprising indigo batik on cotton panels and Yukata Kimono.
Lilly Wong & Tom Scrimgeour in collaboration with Square Roots.
January 5-6th 2022

We explore the dramatic phases of the moon as it rises into its full shape. As the moons ascend, the darker the indigo panels become sending the moon deeper into the nights sky. The epic industrial environment lends space to the installation, adding to the magnitude and scale of the project and the coming of an optimistic new lunar year.

The steel and pipework feels its way across the factory floor, floating kimono positioned like soldiers, occupy the free space while complimenting the moon phases. These wearable art pieces hang like supernatural beings, phantoms brought alive by the light breeze.

Background

Justin Wheatcroft of Square Roots, approached us at the right time. With his new furniture factory nearing completion, there would be a sweet spot of a few days where we would have autonomy of the expansive space to make something before the factory would be put into operation. Our minds rattled with ideas, and the possibility of producing something on such a colossal scale overshadowed the logistics of how to accomplish such a task. We quickly had a working theme and plan to set us on our way. The installation would be an extension of Lilly’s original Moon Installation #no1 on a much larger scale, and with lunar new year around the corner, the timing was perfect. Justin is Co-Founder & Managing Director at Square Roots – designers and craftsman of contemporary furniture.

In the banner design process, the lunar phases are split into 9 panels, with the new moon forming the centre piece. The moons grow outwards as the indigo panels darken until reaching the two outer bright full moons. The darkest shade of fabric was achieved by over thirty dips into the indigo dye vat.

The Kimono installation mirrors the full moons and creates a wearable part of the collection and a core ethos of our company – wearable art.

From start to finish, this was a labour of love – the hands on approach that drives us. Practical work is play and a vital component of our creativity. The installing of the artwork was lots of fun, helped along by the skilled members of staff at Square Roots.

  • moon phases
  • moon phases

Outcome

The moon’s phases are mathematically aligned as they rise up the banners, giving rhythm to the natural phenomena of our satellite’s orbit around us.

Executing the entire process involved sourcing fabric, planning, designing, painting, indigo dyeing, sewing and assembling the installation. The result is something beautiful made for others to enjoy, handcrafted and validated by the appreciation and personal engagement of others. This purpose has arrived perfectly for Lunar New Year, a connection we all have and an art piece we can all understand and admire; the purpose is to celebrate with everyone.

Completing the process gives us fulfilment, reward and accomplishment. This consolidates what we set out to achieve. Art that connects and resonates with everyone, and its ability to be worn; wearable art.

lilly wong tom scrimgeour moon phases
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The Judo Pant

This is our essential everyday pant for working, playing and exercising. Inspired by the practicality of the judo pant, with its move-ability and a soft light fabrics, these unisex pants are for everyone. Enjoy listening to the latest playlist while reading our blog.

True to our ethos of incorporating functionality into our designs, our pants are designed as an essential item to suit an active lifestyle.  A built in drawstring tie makes lends a practical element to the Judo pants for quick and secure adjustments. The addition of large pockets is modern necessity for carrying you belongings. We also opted for lighter breathable materials using cotton in our white pants and linen for the blue and stone colours.

Fun, Comfortable, Active, Stylish: Alex wears the Judo pants in his wood workshop and garden.

Lightweight and breathable enough for Yoga, yet durable for day to day wear. Flat fell seam work completes a quality finish, ensuring the pants will last daily use and wash after wash. In the images below, Amy exercises in the white Judo pants.

The Judo or Judogi 柔道着was the first martial arts uniform designed making its first appearance at the beginning of the 20th century. The Judo set consists of a jacket and pants, the jacket’s ancestry being the Kimono, with sleeves continually shortened until its optimum practicality was insured.

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One Year! Happy Birthday

A celebration of birth, growth and achievement.

Much like lighting a good fire, one year ago we warmed our indigo vat for the first time. Seasoned material and knowledge is required. Patience, learning and graft are necessary before the beautiful results can be appreciated. 

Reflecting on our last year has been as emotional as the journey itself. All of natures elements thrown at us as we navigated the immense task of making our art a reality. Every once in a while we hit calm waters and enjoy the fruits of our labours, before setting out on more adventures after the changing and unpredictable currents of 2021.

As is life, and one lived fully and fast.

Enjoying listening to our Birthday Playlist whilst reading our story!

Lilly and Tom

 With a deep friendship, serendipity brought us together. A spontaneous quality we both have about us!

Riding a wave of optimism, excitement and synergy we launched our company one year ago as Kimono Oi, designing and making our first item that became our signature piece – the crop Kimono. 

We quickly loaded our motorbikes up with as much carefully packed items as we could carry and hit the road north of the city to the mountainous city of Da Lat. The cool air at this altitude, made a fun testing ground and a great respite from the heat before heading down the old French built roads to Phan Thiet. Here the sand dunes and beaches of Mui Ne formed the back drop to our Yukata and lounge ware kimono.

These photoshoot trips are part of our process. 

For our kimono, we set out to honour the traditional form – using the shape as a canvas, whist also adapting it to modern practicality with the inclusion of pockets and a tailored cut in some instances. 

We achieved this in our crop kimono, cutting the garment at the waist, incorporating clever elements so it can be styled in a multitude of ways. 

In Saigon, Lunar New Year came around quickly. With little but essential services open during what became a mini lockdown, Lilly and Tom put their efforts into indigo dyeing and creating art work. 

With both strokes, the brush met our Yukata, linens were made ever darker by our experiments with indigo and resist shapes of polka dots, splashes and strokes formed unique wearable art pieces. 

The feeling of seeing our crafted panels of fabric made up in our kimono designs was incredible. 

Following on from a period of some stability between lockdowns where we set out to create a unisex item for everyone. These reversible Happi are great fun, an outfit change, or an item that can be shared – Happi!

Chef Logan cooks the good stuff. At our showroom’s on-site kitchen we enjoyed his award winning food and managed to get a photoshoot completed in the process for our chef aprons. 

We launched our chef aprons after a need for a functional and durable apron. Tom drew on his career as a chef and our relationships with head chefs in Saigon to create the ultimate apron, using style, durable materials and useful features such as the built in utensil holders. 

Our love of indigo came into use during our extended lockdown. Having moved our vat home just before our internment, we dyed into the night, producing beautiful art, napkins and table runners for our stockists in the USA. 

Lilly put out all the stops, designing big moons painted onto linen in beeswax, destined for the dye vat. These pieces have been on display at Soma as large wall hangings and hand made Noren. 

Artwork on display at Soma Art Lounge, Saigon.

Here, the integrity of our ethos was solidified further, with our dreams and innate desire to create art becoming the natural centre of what we do. 

The inclusion of our art range completes us and what we now do. 

Defining what you are is an organic process that evolves with time. Nothing can replace the journey, the learning, the emotions, the Lilly, the Tom, without such action, patience, passion and in the end a deep unity that is felt and understood by the trained eye who loves, appreciates and understands the artists. 

So, what’s next….

Well you will find out soon! 

What we can tell you, is it’s going to be more adventures! Happy Birthday!

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Art and Noren

Indigo Noren & Moon Art Pieces are on display at Soma Saigon

Soma in Thao Dien Ward, Ho Chi Minh City is now host to original art pieces created by lillywong.art for Oi. Read ahead to learn more about the artist, work, process, how you can commission your own pieces, and enjoy listening to our moon inspired playlist whilst you read.

Thank you.

About our Noren and Art

Noren 暖簾 are traditional Japanese fabric dividers hung between rooms, on walls, in doorways or in windows. 

The natural Linen has been batik resist dyed to create the circular moons. The deep blue has been submerged in the indigo vat over twenty times to achieve its colour. Varying shades of blue extend out of the white centre revealing the gradation in the dye process. 

The batik process uses beeswax to form a resist on an area of the fabric where the indigo dye cannot permeate. The rest of the fabric takes to the indigo leaving the waxed area white when removed. The work requires much time, patience and love to complete.

The moons came about after long nights of dyeing, with the full moon providing our light and inspiration.

Tom Scrimgeour and Lilly Wong, the Founders of Oi.

Lillywong.art and Kiiro

Joint founder Lilly is a practising artist, showcasing her art pieces through Kiiro. The large moons can also be found on a smaller scale in our homeware collection. Lilly is currently offering her photography resources on her website to raise money for the orphans of the Covid 19 pandemic here in Vietnam. Click LillyWong.art to find out more.

Commission your own

Leave us your contact details in the form below if you are interested in owning your own unique piece and we will get in touch.

Indigo Napkins and Runners

In our shop, we have a collection of napkins and table runners available using the same techniques shown in the art pieces. They make a beautiful addition to any table set.

More thoughts on Indigo

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Oi SALE

We had a great SALE this November, celebrating one year of Oi and our range of items. Follow us as we bring new designs and art pieces to you now and in the new year!

SCROLL DOWN to see and learn about everything in our items! Thank you, Lilly and Tom.

Music to shop to

What’s in the SALE

Chef’s Aprons

The chef apron has been making it’s mark on Saigon’s food scene being worn by chefs across disciplines.

Four colour-ways are available – The original blue canvas chef apron, bakers apron in a light tan canvas, the butchers apron with its traditional stripe and the workers apron in a heavy durable denim.

Features of the Chef’s Apron

Crop Kimono

Our original designed crop Kimono takes the features of the classic Kimono and crops it at the waist. The lapels extend from the neck down into long ties with a variety of styling options. These garments offer an accessible way to wear Kimono with any outfit and they are reversible in two tones giving you two distinctive looks in one piece!

Available in Dusty Pink, New Year Red and Black, Coral Teal, Neo Stripes and Polka Pink and Green.

Dusty Pink Crop Kimono

Yukata

The summer Yukata is a classic. Loved by everyone from hot Kyoto night dwellers to home lounge ware and robes. Each Oi Yukata comes with a Sash for easy tie-ing and build in pockets for practicality.

Available in Blue, Tropical, Floral Red and Monochrome Stripes.

Blue Unisex Yukata

Happi Jackets

We have a few reversible Happi left in the collection. The seamless design with built in ties and pockets is made in a light Silk Rayon.

Indigo dyed Happi Jackets with Shibori patterned Silk Lining.

These are made in two tones of Linen – Indigo Blue and Indigo and Stone.

Reversible Happi
Indigo Happi and Stone Indigo Happi

Indigo Art Kimono

Our passion and craft. We use a variety of techniques to create these Kimono and use 100% Silk in the cropped design and 100% light cotton in the Yukata.

Polka Indigo Silk Crop
Indigo Yukata Cotton

Haori Coat

The soft striped cotton Haori is a cosy comfortable coat that can be worn at home or out and about.

Striped Cotton Haori
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Our understanding of Blue

The first mention of blue

“And now have I put in here, as thou seest, with ship and crew, while sailing over the wine-dark sea to men of strange speech, on my way to Temese for copper; and I bear with me shining iron.” Homer – The Odyssey

In all the works of Homer there is no mention of the word blue – instead he describes the ocean as wine dark. This choice of description extends to other ancient civilisations too, from the Hebrew bible to ancient Chinese text, there is no mention or reference to the word blue, whereas black, white, red, yellow and green are mentioned countless times. Why, when colour vision was developed in humans 30 million years ago is this the case?

When linguists analysed this, they found out that in every culture, black and white make there appearance first. They are followed by red, yellow and finally green before blue as a descriptive word enters a given language. There are some strong reasons for this. As black and white distinguish between night and day they initially were the most useful words potentially explaining why they came first. Next, red with its connotation of blood and danger from self wound or the hunting of animals. Early cave paintings are brushed with red pigment. Finally green and yellow taught us to distinguish between ripe and unripe foods. But blue, although notably present in the nature world to us, did not enter our consciousness in the same way until much later.

Blue in Nature

Blue is seemingly everywhere, from clear skies, vast oceans, to tropical birds feathers and flickering butterflies. But are they as they seem? As light refracts across a butterfly or the wings of a bird it is distorted giving our eyes the illusion of blue. The colour is not set. The waters of our oceans are clear as is our air until light works its magic by bouncing through our thin atmosphere and creating a “blue” hue. True blue is very rare and its pigment comes from a leaf first cultivated in India – Indigo.

Manufactured Blue

Experts mostly agree that we began to see blue as a colour when we started making blue pigments around 6000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians loved the the colour blue and used Lapis – a stone mined in Afghanistan mixed with limestone and other ingredients to produce saturated blue pigments. They were the only ancient culture to develop a word for blue before passing on their knowledge to other cultures in the region. However the dye was so expensive that blue remained rare for many centuries. The word started slowly spreading.

It wasn’t until the cultivation of Indigo in Asia and Africa and Woad in Europe that blue started to become more common – indigo being the stronger and more vivid pigment. Until synthesised in the 1900’s it is remarkable that a small green leaf is responsible for all the blue we see now.

Conditioning

Do you remember flash cards when you were learning at school? The teacher would hold up a colour and get you to say it. This process of learning has conditioned us to look for and recognise colours more stronger than we naturally would. Nursery rhymes and other songs sing the greatness of blue and have forever cemented it as the most popular and adored colour of them all.

Ơi Saigon

Lilly and Tom of Oi love Indigo and passionately maintain their own indigo dye vats, producing garments and fabrics in true natural blue. From napkins and runners to adorn your table, to natural fabrics such as silk and linen turned into beautiful garments, we cannot get enough of Blue.

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Oi Design Ethos

We have simplified our brand name from Kimono Ơi to Ơi. In Vietnam, the expression Ơi is exchanged between everyone as a term of endearment and affection. You may notice we sometimes exchange the i for ! to make Ơ!. The intention is to grab your attention, subtly.

The R’s of Ơi

Refine – improve and fine tune the artwork, one must remove unwanted elements

Revisit previous work – evaluate the process and learn from the past

Reinvent old ideas, there is nothing wrong with starting over, finished work doesn’t mean its final, nothing is permanent

Resources – utilise existing skills or learn new ones to achieve the the best result

Reduce – don’t overkill – don’t go beyond what is required or suitable

Reflect – consider what went well, what didn’t and how to improve the next time

Ruthless – be ruthless, know when to stop

and always apply an element of fun where ever possible (!)

What is Oi about?

The simple necessities in life and beauty, and the value and appreciation of these things.

A work in progress – how we made Ơi

At Oi, we built our lifestyle brand from logo to products, so far keeping all aspects of design in-house. As an arts educator, Joint Founder Lilly habitually records her ideas; seeing an idea evolve, gaining a better direction and discovering new lessons. This process allows us to see how we are progressing and justify our ideas.

Can your idea be justified?

Asking questions makes good practice; you would want to get it right after all. The right design chooses its time, so one must allow for flexibility, because often than not, circumstances may change forcing one to take a different approach. This can be challenging and therefore it is important to not become too attached to initial ideas.

It always helps to have two minds working together as oppose to one, so always get a second opinion, a good rule of thumb in all life aspects, and always apply an element of fun where ever possible!

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Earning your stripes – The Butcher’s Apron

Despite the assumption of rising up the military ranks , the expression has its roots in butchery and the culinary world. To earn one’s stripes would be after completing your apprenticeship and qualifying as a trained butcher. With a history dating back to the 16th century, the blue striped apron was the uniform of the trade and that tradition carries to this day, the broad stripe signifying a master butcher from his apprentice. The design is so deeply entrenched in British culture now, it is the go-to design for chefs.

With the help of Cornish butcher Lenard in Cornwall England, we were able to recreate the traditional and iconic stripe used by Butchers and Chefs all over the world. The durable and natural canvas is screen printed with the iconic white stripe. Other features include built-in holders for utensils and kitchen towels and practical pockets for essential items and pen holding. Wear your apron with pride, as chefs and butchers do today.

Custom Embroidery

Mark Lockwood, owner and creator of Sizzle wears his custom embroidered Butchers Apron. Mark makes and sells a wide range of artisan sausages from Saigon’s Thao Dien.

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Summer Yukata 浴衣

夏 With the heat upon us and with spending more time outdoors, what could be better than wearing absolute comfort throughout the summer.

YU-KA-TA – 浴衣

A yukata is a summer unlined Kimono usually made of cotton, literally meaning “bathing cloth”. Worn by men and women with straight-cut fabric and wide sleeves. With a bout of good weather, they can be seen worn all over Japan. Their versatile, adaptable, stylish and comfortable form making them popular with all generations, and flattering for all body shapes. They are designed to wrap around your body as opposed to western clothing that is cut to fit your body. The Yukata is folded left over right and tied in place with an Obi or a sash as is included with each Kimono Oi Yukata.

INDIGO & POP!

There are new unisex additions to both our collections such as our hand-painted indigo to pattern our cotton Indigo Yukata. Our Pop line comprises of lightweight printed natural cotton and thicker striped cotton for snug home comfort. Each Yukata comes with a matching sash and built-in pockets for added function. View the collection by clicking on the images below.

  • Yukata
    Yukata
    $197
Yukata cotton

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The functional Chef’s apron # No. 1

Saigon is a food and beverage town. The range of gastronomic options in Vietnam’s largest city are vast, and with good fortune, we have been able to enjoy them during the pandemic. We asked ourselves and spoke to other chefs – What should an Apron be?

Chef’s asked for the following –

chef requirements for an apron- 
1. lightweight and breathable material
2. durable and washable
3. comfortable
4. Functional for useful items.

Aside from the metal buckles, the whole apron is made from a breathable cotton canvas, resulting in a comfortable, strong, and light apron that will last. The craftsmanship is kept to the high standards we are proud of across all of our range with re-enforced double stitchwork for long-lasting strength.

“Keep it simple, stupid”

Functional patch pockets accommodate the essentials, pens, and phone. Holders on either side of the apron grip utensils, tongs, or towels for handling hot plates and cleaning down surfaces.

Two colour ways – chef’s blue and baker’s canvas.

  • The presentable dark blue canvas keeps the grease and mess that come with working in a kitchen less visible.
  • A light baker’s apron makes a smart option for working with flour.

A professional touch.

Add your company logo or personal Instagram handle with multicolour embroidery. Custom industry sizing available.

Technical Specs.

  • Adjustable neck strap
  • Super durable and breathably light cotton canvas
  • Practical pockets for items and pens.
  • Towel and Utensil holders
  • STRENGTH – Re-enforced double stitch work.
  • Designed & handmade by Kimono-Oi in Saigon.

Material and Care

  • 100% Cotton Canvas 8oz
  • 91cm (35.82in) x 80cm (31in)
  • Metal Adjustable Elements
  • Cold Machine Wash
  • Iron as needed

F & B Enquiries and Orders

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