<\/p>\n
Soon enough, the post had hundreds of comments and shares, with IRL queues forming out the door of both the Barbadoes Street and Sydenham City Mission stores. \u201cIt\u2019s a kimono frenzy,\u201d City Mission retail team leader Josie Cox told RNZ<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re selling them for $2 each and they\u2019ve just gone mad. This morning there were probably 40 people waiting to come in.\u201d The stock arrived by way of three trucks and two vans, and staff couldn\u2019t restock the bins fast enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n Any seasoned op shopper is always chasing the dream of stumbling across a rare or weird find, be it a war relic<\/a>, a treasured timepiece<\/a>, or even a purse containing a family mystery<\/a>. But this opshop drop was on another scale of novelty and luxury entirely \u2013 10,000 unique pieces, all in perfect condition, from a mysterious private donor. Where did they all come from? Why so, so, so many? Why central Christchurch? Why now? And, once again, why so, so, so many?<\/p>\n I contacted a local kimono historian \u2013 who wished to stay anonymous but described themself as \u201ca detective analysing each and every kimono\u201d \u2013 to see what they reckoned. \u201cA very unusual story,\u201d they wrote, positing the collection may have recently come into the ownership of someone seeking \u201ca quick resolution.\u201d As for the value, they estimated the total collection would have cost between $10,000-$30,000 to buy in Japan, and at least $5000 to import.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the monetary value, they also explained the historical and cultural significance. \u201cKimono were refined over the past 1000 years to the garment we see today,\u201d they said, explaining how the garment is now mostly used as formal wear for the wealthy on special cultural occasions in Japan. \u201cNo fashion designer has ever been able to improve it. The design is perfect,\u201d they wrote, adding that each one is also completely unique: \u201cyour kimono has no copies.\u201d<\/p>\n Karen Healey was one of the Cantabrians lucky enough to nab a couple of the peerless $2 pieces for herself from the Barbadoes Street op shop, after hearing about the donation from a fellow customer at The Fabric Store. \u201cThe second you walked in, there were all these people clustered around these two big bins right at the front \u2013 anyone opening the door was hit with kimono,\u201d she described. \u201cIt was a brief little miracle\u2026 a dusty, noisy, magical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n While Healey says everyone was being \u201cvery kind and considerate\u201d when she visited, Anissa Trinder, aka vintage seller Spice Kotiro, told a different story. Trinder was there \u201con a whim\u201d as the multiple trucks arrived, and says that people \u201cimmediately just started going crazy\u201d for the kimonos. She picked up a kimono that she liked the look of, and another woman snatched it right out of her hands. \u201cI just thought, \u2018man, fuck this. I do not need a kimono that bad\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Being a reseller herself, I asked Trinder about the $2 price point and the fact that several are already being resold on Facebook Marketplace for much more. \u201cThe City Mission obviously just wanted to move them through, and they sold them all within the week, which is really beneficial for them,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s crazy that lots of them are on Marketplace, especially because it was such a public Christchurch phenomenon and everyone was talking about them.\u201d<\/p>\n Healey purchased three kimonos, one yukata and a haori. \u201cThe fabric and the patterning is really what I\u2019m after, so they will be reborn as garments that will be loved and treasured in a slightly different form,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it will make a good story \u2013 this shirt came from one of the kimono.\u201d After snatch-gate, Trinder didn\u2019t buy anything. \u201cI am very specific with my style and the things that I sell,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m also wary of cultural appropriation and all that stuff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s another interesting consideration to mull over \u2013 is it a risk to have this many kimonos unleashed in a place which still boasts an alarming number of white dreadlocks? While my mystery kimono historian maintained that anyone from \u201cDJs to traditional Japanese housewives\u201d can now wear a kimono, opinions differ<\/a> on the mainstream popularisation<\/a> of the garment. (I also reached out to the Japanese Society of Canterbury for comment, but am yet to hear back).\u00a0<\/p>\n For those who were lucky enough to nab one (or, as Healey observed in one customer, one hundred) of these pieces, there\u2019s also delicate care concerns. The kimono expert recommended they are stored flat, ideally in kimono-friendly paper, in a drawer with silica gel and mothballs. As for washing? Go for a hand wash in cold water. \u201cMust be immersed in a bath to avoid bubbles,\u201d they added. \u201cWet area will transfer dye to any dry area, so bubbles are the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n All of the above info would have been useful if, when the doors of the op shop swung open like a saloon on Saturday morning, there had been any of the elusive kimonos left. Alas, we were all about 48 hours too late. I poked about the rest of the store, nabbing a pristine $1 rubber chicken, as multiple bereft women with sharp grey bobs and statement glasses processed the news. \u201cThe kimonos have all sold out, I\u2019m so sorry,\u201d the shopkeeper said gently.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNow they are just a distant memory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"10,000 kimonos\u2026 10,000 unanswered questions.\u00a0 Summer read \u2013 originally published August 5 2025. On Saturday morning at 9.57am,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4487,126104,492,156,126105,111,139,69,126106,113060,2935,123306],"class_list":["post-206560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-christchurch","tag-city-mission","tag-comments-enabled","tag-entertainment","tag-kimono","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opshop","tag-otautahi","tag-society","tag-tourism-fiji-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The hallowed kimono bins. (Image: City Mission Facebook)<\/p>\n
Every kimono was different. (Image: City Mission Facebook)<\/p>\n