PSEUDOJAPAN : J-Culture in a little red dot

Guide to getting a yukata in Singapore

For whatever reason you want one, quite a reasonable variety of it do exist. If you are looking for the more formal kimono, some of the shops below do have them, although kimono hunting is beyond the scope of this article.

BHG (formerly SEIYU)

Location: Bugis Junction BHG, 1st floor. Lot 1 BHG, 1st floor entrance. Junction 8 BHG, ?.

Seasonal, only available during their Japan Sale during August. Other stuff available include uchiwa, furishiki and men’s jinbei. Price: Ladies’ yukata set at S$129.

Takashimaya (Talking Hall)

Location: B1, Takashimaya, Ngee Ann City

Year round, variety depends on season. Normally not more than 10 sets on display. Related stuff available include geta, obi and shibori-dyed koshihimo.
Price: Bare ladies yukata at S$79, and men’s at around S$49. Ladies’ 3 piece sets at S$159.

Akihabara Japan Products

Location: The Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #03-03, Singapore 059817 (Formerly at The Edge at Bugis Junction which is now being renovated into a foodcourt after Bugis Junction was bought over by Capitaland. Before they were at Bugis, it is said that they were at Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre. They have since reopened their branch at Bugis Junction at #03-25 on 20 Sept 07.
Namecard:

The shop gets new stuff from Japan once a month or so. Large variety. Related stuff includes kitsuke accessories available as sets or individually, getas, bags, obijime etc. Kimono available too, although much more expensive than yukata.
Price: Sets for men tend to be about S$70+ whereas ladies’ tend to be about S$150+

On an unrelated note, one of the shopkeepers has an elephant’s memory when it comes to remembering customers. I can testify that :p – Qubicfactor

Nagomi Gift Shop

Location: The Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #03-80, Singapore 059817
Namecard:

This is a fairly new shop. Relatively large selection. Related stuff available includes geta, bags, kitsuke set.
Price: Bare ladies’ yukata from S$69 – S$329. Obis also vary around the same price range. Kitsuke set at S$49.

Patch Magic

Location: 1 Scotts Road, #04-30 Shaw Centre, Singapore 228208
Namecard:

This is a pretty neat shop hidden in Shaw Centre. The owner indicated that her shop here is about a year old although she has been in the kimono fabric products line for some 20 years. Patch Magic stocks a limited range of yukata and yukata sets, as well as a few geta. You can visit their site at www.patchmagicsingapore.com. They have a sister shop, L’escalier, above Kinokuniya SIMS.
Price: About S$140 for ladies’ set. Men’s are sold individually, pricing unverified.

Places of interest of *some* relevance

Note: The following places may or may not be selling yukatas, but are related in a sense. These may include unverified places from net rumours etc. If you do visit them and have more info to share, do drop in a comment.

L’escalier

Location: 391 Orchard Road, #04-20K Ngee Ann City, Singapore 238872

This is a sister shop of Patch Magic. Located at the Forum above Kinokuniya SIMS, this is mainly an art shop that doesn’t sell yukata but do have kimono obi and obijime. The shop assistant mentioned that the shop opened in Nov 2006. Other things here include natsume, noren, rolls of what is either washi paper or kimono fabric bolts and lots of Japanese related craftworks. They also have ongoing art workshops.

Wacha

Location: 14 Ann Siang Road, #01-01, Singapore 069694

A few articles pasted on the door gives an indication that it is actually a cafe which also sells Japanese antiques/art. It is a sister shop of L’escalier. According to wishingrinoa~, the shop sells porcelain pieces, obi and geta but does not sell yukata.

Kinokuniya Liang Court

This branch of Kinokuniya has a section dedicated to traditional Japanese crafts. Geta available, although they do not sell yukata.

Arab Street (particularly Haji Lane)

The shops here sell real vintage kimono, which vary greatly in formality from wool hitoe to the all- black-five-crested mofuku. But do note that most of the clothes that end up here have some sort of defects or damage, since they are, after all, vintage. If you intend to buy kimono from this shop, it is suggested that you arm yourself with some basic knowledge of kimono construction, because you will very likely find ripped seams in need of fixing. Check items carefully for stains, in particular, soya sauce. If the item is made out of a washable material, the stains may lighten or come out in the wash, but many of the kimono here are silk, on which soya sauce is effectively permanent. At other times kimono here may have holes. That said, it is almost impossible to find articles here that are in perfect condition. Tip: If you want to learn how to sew kimono or yukata, this is a good place to buy a cheap one to take apart.
Price: S$25- S$65 generally for the things there.

-Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 1st floor – closed down

-Japanese School at Changi (for rent during their annual Natsumatsuri for S$2.50 as cleaning fee)

-Jurong East – Apparently there is an auntie who used to sell yukata there but AngelZhou told me she no longer entertains guests (she sells from her home) other than her previous regular customers.  - Qubicfactor

-Meidi-Ya – Someone mentioned that they sell kid’s yukata here but I haven’t seen that for myself. Then again, I have yet to visit them near/in the summer season. – Qubicfactor

Other options

Sew it yourself

Where to start may be a major issue. Then again, there are people here capable of doing this (i.e. Nadiah), so shouldn’t be impossible. Bolts of cloth meant for yukata are readily available online, ebay included. Even so, you can always cut wide bolts such as those commonly available at Chinatown to the proper width. Patterns are also available online from places like http://www-personal.umich.edu/~weyrbrat/Japan/yukata/, or you can purchase them (provided that you know enough Japanese) from http://www.fabrictales.com under “Japanese Craft/Sewing Pattern”, or obtain a yukata craftbook (i.e. ゆかたを手作り ISBN 978-4-8347-2427-1) which you can get from Kinokuniya for some S$24.10.

Get someone going to Japan to buy one for you

Yukatas are freesize, which means size is mostly a non issue, unless you have special needs. Short of going to Japan yourself, a downside to this is that someone else does the choosing for you, although you can give a general indication of the colour etc beforehand. The other downside is that being Japan, yukata availability will most probably be seasonal and places like departmental stores will only have them near summer season. Things to note include cheap sets by stores like Uniqlo which has been selling 3990 yen sets. Hotels/Inns may have yukatas for their guests to wear, which may or may not complimentary, but these are not the type this article refers to. If anything, those are most likely the equivalent of bathrobes.

Internet
If everything else fails, there is always the net. Ordering direct from Japan remains a viable option, despite the shipping costs.

Local/regional ebay/Yahoo auctions may produce interesting deals, although searching may be troublesome and produce few relevant results. Beware however, of American/Chinese yukata commonly found on international eBay which are simply imitations (real yukata is cotton and not silk/polyester!) and are literally yukatabira (bathrobes) or nightrobes at best. The Singapore version of Yahoo auctions do have a few, most will be listed near the summer season. However, you might find a better deal if you prowl around in the other parts of the year despite the very limited availability.

Interestingly, there are also some who do sell yukata imported from Japan on the SGCafe forums. Buying there may be a good way to save on shipping costs, since such sources import in bulk.

Examples of online sources

SGCafe forum based (may be seasonal, around end June – September latest, as such sources usually depend on bulk purchases during summer season)
Deypherus
She purchases ladies’ yukata, obi, and geta from Japan. Some are already in-stock (i.e. arrived in Singapore) and pictures are available at her thread. Cheaper if you get a set.
Nice seller to deal with! =D Best is to add her at msn and talk to her personally on what you want. She also have some real life pictures taken by her personally for you to check out. –  AngelZhou
Link : http://sgcafe.com/showthread.php?t=35895

YukataWarehouse
They import yukata sets, yukata fukubukuro / lucky packs, geta, obi, butterfly obi,  for both ladies and men. Their value-for-money products are the yukata sets and fukubukuro / lucky packs. Things to note include their yukata lucky packs which consists of a yukata, obi, geta and other accessories for less than S$100
Another great seller that easy to deal with. Easiest way to contact them is by email and PM. The girl who answer the enquiries are very helpful and know a lot. She even offers me some tips on storing my yukata n such. Price is going to raise after the ‘yukata sale season’ ended. So you if you want to buy either you buy now or wait next year cuz their non-sale price is like few hundred bucks lol – AngelZhou
Link : http://yukatawarehouse.livejournal.com

Internet Shopping based
Kimonodonya
(www.kimonodonya.com)
This is the only one that I have tried ordering from. Their English site offers much less than the Japanese site, but then again, my command of Japanese is not enough to be able to find out if the Japanese site allows delivering to overseas directly. If your Japanese is good, and money is not a problem, you can try using Singapore Post’s VPost. For their English site, posting will be by EMS, and will arrive in 2-3 days.

Note: Kimonodonya has removed their English site. 

- Qubicfactor

Ichiroya
(www.ichiroya.com)
Heard of other people here ordering from this site (for other things; they sell yukata cloth bolts too, not just yukata), but never tried ordering yet. Tell me if you do try and it is good. – Qubicfactor

In any case, when shopping online, do be careful – net safety still applies, especially with the online transactions.

Other useful stuff

How to wear
This can be either taught by the shopkeeper, read about online, found on a piece of paper included with the yukata set or from annual Japanese yukata periodicals.

Cheap accessories
You can actually get S$2 oni masks/uchiwa from places like Daiso. Summer festivals like the Natsumatsuri may give out free uchiwa. Alternatively, some of the accessories (i.e. kitsuke set) can be improvised upon (my sis made her own obi ita and used a shoelace in place of a koshihimo -  Qubicfactor). Brightly coloured ribbons/shoelaces can make an interesting substitute for an obijime.

Disclaimer: This article lists out some options which you may use at your own risk. It neither endorses nor promotes any of the above sources, nor does it represent them in any way. Prices listed are estimated ranges based upon what was seen or quoted, and may change without notice.

PseudoJapan – Yukata
Rev 2.0-120108

Project contributors: Qubicfactor, Nadiah, AngelZhou, wishingrinoa~
Subject to modifications. Please check again for updates.

Changes: Added info pertaining to Wacha courtesy of wishingrinoa~, some other misc information updated.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

This is the first of hopefully many PseudoJapan articles I hope to compile. Being human I do make mistakes, so if you spot any mistakes, or would like to share some new information, do drop in to comment. Contributors will be credited. Any information/materials on any of my PseudoJapan articles is free for all to use/quote unless otherwise stated – I hope to do it wiki style sometime in the future.

Otherwise, feel free to ask questions via comments. I will try my best to answer them. -  Qubicfactor

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