The kimono ("thing to wear") is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a T-shaped, wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn with the left side wrapped over the right side, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono is traditionally worn with an obi, and is commonly worn with accessories such as zōri sandals and tabi socks.
Kimono are traditionally made from bolts of fabric known as tanmono, which are woven to a narrow width and long length. The width of the tanmono varies for men and women, and there are many different types of kimono for men, women and children. The type of kimono worn can also vary based on the wearer's age, the formality of occasion and–less commonly–the wearer's marital status. Though kimono are commonly worn only to formal events in the modern day, kimono can be worn to events of every formality.
In modern Japan, the kimono is uncommonly worn as everyday dress, and has steadily fallen out of fashion as the most common garment for a Japanese person to own and wear. Kimono are now most frequently seen at summer festivals, where people frequently wear the yukata, the most informal type of kimono; however, the kimono is also worn to funerals, weddings and other formal events. The people who wear the kimono most frequently in Japanese society are older men and women–who may have grown up wearing it, though less commonly so than previous generations–geisha and maiko (who are required to wear it as part of their profession), and sumo wrestlers, who must wear kimono at all times in public.
Despite the low numbers of people who wear kimono commonly and the garment's reputation as an uncomfortable piece of clothing, the kimono has experienced a number of revivals in previous decades, and is still worn today as fashionable clothing within Japan.