When confronted with a collection of kimono before me – in a dazzling array of colors and fabrics, from the subtlest gray to the brightest poppy red, from the softest of silks to the starchiest of cottons – there are always three questions that pop into my head:
Do I need another kimono?
Do I have the money to pay for it?
Do I have the self-deluding manipulative ability to justify such a purchase?
Usually, the answer to all these questions is, at least in my crazy mind, a resounding yes. But the real question behind those concerns has always boiled down to this: what price, beauty? And for that – for the balm of beauty – no price is too high, no sacrifice too great, no other outcome than that most happy of words: YES.
