30 Beautiful Portraits of European Women in Kimonos From the Early 1900s

During the early 1900s, Europe was swept by a craze known as Japonisme, a profound fascination with Japanese art, culture, and fashion.

For Western women of the Belle Époque, the Japanese kimono became the ultimate symbol of exotic luxury and artistic rebellion. Departing from the restrictive, bone-corseted silhouettes of Victorian and Edwardian fashion, high-society women embraced the kimono as a “tea gown” or dressing robe. Its loose, flowing lines and vibrant silk embroideries, often featuring motifs like cranes, cherry blossoms, and chrysanthemums, offered a sense of freedom and avant-garde style. Renowned painters of the era, such as Gustav Klimt and James Tissot, frequently depicted their muses draped in these silken garments, cementing the kimono's status as a staple of the “Bohemian” and “Orientalist” aesthetic.

This trend was not merely about clothing, it represented a bridge between East and West, where the traditional Japanese garment was reinterpreted as a modern statement of elegance and cosmopolitanism.