New ABBA The Museum Kimonos

 I was just browsing the ABBA the Museum website and happened to see that they've just remade the kimonos.  And I was pretty excited because, as stated in my lengthy post from August about the problems with ABBA the Museum's costumes, ABBA the Museum did not make an accurate kimono.  Now, I'm not trying to diss ABBA the Museum for attempting to sell ABBA costume replicas, because so few of those exist, but when the product is described as being a replica of the ABBA members' stage costumes, I expect to see a replica, not just something inspired by the kimonos.  And sadly, these kimonos are just as flawed as the first one.

The first issue is not with the costumes themselves, but with the item description, which is as follows:

This kimono is a replica of the stage costume worn by Frida during the Japan leg of the tour. Designed by Owe Sandström, the piece reflects a creative fusion of Japanese and Swedish aesthetics. Sandström chose the traditional Japanese kimono silhouette and adorned it with motifs from Swedish flora—specifically, the Columbine, a classic garden flower. 

(Obviously it says a different ABBA members' name per product description, I just copied the one for Frida's.  Everything else is the same.) 

Now, if you're familiar with ABBA's story, which I would assume ABBA the Museum would have to be because they are the official ABBA museum after all, you know that the Kimonos first debuted in 1976.  Not 100% certain on this, like I can't find a source for this other than my own brain, but I do believe the kimonos were created for the purpose of taking them to Japan, but ABBA didn't end up going to Japan until 1978.  Bjorn and Benny did end up wearing the now-two year old costumes during the short promotional trip, specifically for three of the performances (Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name Of The Game, and If It Wasn't For The Nights), although Benny was oddly wearing Agnetha's kimono rather than his own.  

 The first official appearance of the Kimonos was in one of the commercials for Japanese Electronics Company, National, in August 1976.  And roughly a month later, the kimonos were worn during the performance of Why Did It Have To Be for the TV special, ABBA-Dabba-Doo.  The final time the ABBA members wore all four kimonos together was in November 1976, when they appeared on the French TV show Les Rendez-vous du Dimanche.  

The kimonos were not worn during the Japanese leg of the 1979/80 World Tour.  So I don't understand why they would say that in the product description,

Now onto the actual costumes themselves.

In the previous iterations of the Kimonos that ABBA the museum sold, they simply scanned in one design out of the 3-4 that appear on each ABBA members' costumes and repeated it in a couple spots on the kimonos.  The kimonos were also full-length, more accurate to traditional Japanese kimonos, but not accurate to how ABBA's costumes were designed.

This time, they have made shorter kimonos, more in line but not quite as short as ABBA's original Kimonos.  They've also scanned in more of the original designs, not just the one, and have made the costumes more accurate in color.  

They almost had me fooled that they'd made an accurate replica this time, however, yet again, the placement of the designs is wrong, again.

To compare, here is an updated chart featuring my drawings of the designs in the correct placement, and the new ABBA the Museum costumes.  (For some bonus fun, can you tell from where on the original kimonos they took the designs from???)  ((ALSO just a reminder - these drawings I did of the floral designs are not 1000% accurate because I had to piece them together myself using images of ABBA's kimonos))

Agnetha: 

  Frida:

 

Benny:

 

 

 

 

Bjorn:

 

 

 I'm just so baffled as to why they've done this, why they can't just put everything in the correct placement.  If they just looked at my charts, they would see how inaccurate they are, but they don't even have to use my charts because they have the actual original costumes right there on display in the museum to consult with.  I just don't understand.

 

 

 Now we know that I have beef with a lot of ABBA tribute bands, but why is it that some of their costumes are more accurate in terms of design placement than the ones sold at the ABBA museum???

 

  

PLEASE do better ABBA the museum, or at least don't list your costumes as replicas.  Please and thank you. <3

 

Somewhat related - I saw this shirt at the Polar Music store, and I think it's such a cute, but subtle way to wear an ABBA themed garment, featuring the design on collar of Frida's Waterloo Costume.  It may be ridiculously expensive, but it's super cute regardless.  If ABBA the Museum wanted to sell more ABBA-inspired clothes like this, I wouldn't have any complaints with that.

 

 Alright, rant over.  Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

Also, one nice thing about these new kimonos is the nice high quality scan of the design that's on the back left of Agnetha's sleeve that I unfortunately had to make up half the details for on my doll kimono because there were no high quality reference photos.  Unfortunately this means, oh the horrors, my doll costume is slightly inaccurate, but at least I can saw it's placed in the correct location lol)

 

Costume updates...

 2 and a half years ago, I began recreating these 1975 tour outfits again because you know me, I'm never satisfied.  But this project was actually a nightmare to work on, with several rage quits and lots of money spent...  But, they're finally done.  Unfortunately these are not my favorite recreations ever, which I of course explained in more detail on my sewing blog, but it is what it is, and I did the best I could with what I had. :3

Mini Cat Dresses

 So I made Barbie-sized cat dresses for my barbies that vaguely resemble Agnetha and Frida.  As usual, a more detailed post is on my sewing blog, and I actually filmed a random video while I was making this that's on my YouTube channel. :3

Velvet Jumpsuits

 Last night I finished a new set of costumes...  Two new sets of costumes actually.  ABBA's velvet jumpsuits from 1976, and ABBA's Voyage jumpsuits that are recreations of the 1976 jumpsuits. :D

As usual, a more detailed post is available on my sewing blog.

Ring Ring?

 Look, I made a new set of costumes for my dolls! :D As usual, a more detailed post is up on my sewing blog, but here they are for you to see. :)  These outfits were frustrating, complicated, and difficult in some ways to make, mostly because of all the glue I used, lol, but I think they turned out pretty decent.

Supapa Troupapa

 Guess who made a new ABBA costume for my dolls. :3  I made Agnetha's outfit a few years ago, but gave it a quick update, but made Frida's outfit completely new today.  As always, more details on my sewing blog. 

 

Money money money

 I recently finished my latest batch of doll costumes, this time of ABBA's 1976 flapper-style outfits.  For a more detailed post, feel free to check out my sewing blog. :3

For a little update from me, unfortunately my dear budgie, Skyler passed away on March 1st.  He had a mass in his liver, and the last two months he was very sick.  He was my everything, we did almost everything together, we got to witness ABBA's comeback together, he'd sit on my shoulder while I sewed and drew, though he wasn't a big fan of when I was working on my book a year ago.  He didn't like that I was putting all my attention to my drawing tablet instead of him, haha.

 He was a really sweet bird, the best little guy a girl like me could ask for.  I miss him so much, but I'm just so grateful for the time that we had together.  I love you Skyler.

 

Masters of the scene

  I just finished my remake of ABBA's white 1979 tour outfits.  I have a more detailed blog post on my sewing blog if you're interested in that of course. :)

1979 World Tour Costumes

 I have yet again remade ABBA's costumes from their 1979 world tour for my dolls, this time a lot more accurate.  :)

As usual, I have a more detailed post on how I made them on my sewing blog, which you can check out here.

La question c'est voulez-vous

 It would seem that I'm on a roll when it comes to remaking ABBA costumes this year.  May I present to you the newest editions to my collection: This set of outfits that ABBA wore for a brief period of time in early 1979:

As usual, I have a more detailed post on my sewing blog if you are interested in that. :)

Wa wa wa wa Waterloo

 I have officially remade ABBA's waterloo costumes for the third time now for my dolls. :'D

Of course, for a more detailed look into these outfits, feel free to check out my sewing blog. :3

Voyage costumes #2

 I just posted pictures of my most recent ABBA costume recreation, this time of the first ABBA voyage costumes we'd ever seen.  For a more detailed post, feel free to check out my sewing blog. :3

1978 animal outfits...

 Hi.  :D  I just finished recreating ABBA's 1978 animal outfits in miniature for my dolls.  For a somewhat detailed post on how I made them, feel free to check out my sewing blog. :3

ABBA Voyage costumes

 

Yep, I did it,  I made these outfits for my dolls. And it was a nightmare,  More detailed post here: https://amazing-sewing.blogspot.com/2021/12/abba-voyage-costumes.html 

And a video:

Avatar Costume Analysis

Two posts in one day, can you believe it..? xD  

As you all know, I devote a lot of my time to recreating ABBA's costumes in miniature for my doll costumes.  I like to sew and remake things as accurately as possible, and that means that I of course want to remake the ABBA-tars costumes for my dolls because they are new ABBA costumes and I want my ABBA dolls to have all of the costumes haha.  Now I do have my issues with the ABBA-tar costumes, because in my humble opinion, they look kinda like the type of knockoff costumes a tribute band would wear, as sort of ABBA-inspired costumes.  See this, this, and this , just to put a few examples.  However, I respect the costumes chosen for the ABBA-tars, and I have a desire to remake them for my dolls.

So far, we know of at least two outfits that the ABBAtars wear on stage - the glittery ones and the red/green ones.

Unfortunately there aren't many close up photos of these costumes available yet, so I don't have much reference, but here's what I can tell based on the little footage we have of them:

Agnetha's glittery costume looks to be a two-piece outfit - a slightly flared t-shirt paired with an asymmetrical skirt.  The (digital) fabric looks like a sequiny fabric, like this one on amazon.  Her outfit is an aqua blue color, and she wears black boots with a bit of a slouch to them.  On the below photo, the boots look to be a solid black, but in the ISHFIY music video, they look like they could have some sparkle to them, like Frida's boots.

Benny's wearing a sparkly grey top, though it is unclear if it is long sleeved or short sleeved.  He's also wearing a matching long, thin scarf of the same material.  Interesting choice to have the scarf and shirt of the same material, but that's ok.  From the little I can see in the music video, his pants could be black, though I don't know if they're plain material or sparkly as well.

Frida's outfit is a sparkly silver, I'm assuming the same material as Benny's outfit.  Her outfit is also two pieces, though the t-shirt isn't flared like Agnetha's, but the skirt is the same.  She wears a belt, whereas Agnetha doesn't, and her boots are a sparkly silver and the same style as Agnetha's.  I do like how their costumes are similar yet different. :)

Bjorn wears a sparkly t-shirt that for some reason to me loos like it could be a sparkly gold, but it is extremely hard to tell from the lighting in the video.  His pants could be black as well, but again, not sure.

Next we have the red/green outfits.  There aren't many clear photos of these at all, but the cover for the new Just a Notion single seems to give us very, very little, but a little more details of the ladies' outfits.

 Agnetha wears a greenish/blueish ensemble.  It looks like it could be one piece, but also could be two separate pieces.  The top looks a little bit like a loosefit sweater almost, with wide sleeves that gather in at the cuffs.  The pants are flared and remind me very much of her white jumpsuit from 1974/75.  There appears to be a floral pattern of sorts going across the top and down the pants, reminding me of the blue satin suits. And it looks like she's wearing heels of the same color.  Very matchy-matchy.

Frida's outfit is very similar to Agnetha's, but in red, though from the photos below, it looks like the sleeves could be more flared, and shaped kinda like a semi-circle if that makes any sense. xD  There is an actual name for that type of sleeve, but it is not coming to me right now.  

Based on the cover photo for the Just A Notion single, it looks like the front of Frida's outfit has a very long, slit collar (I'm sure there's a more proper term for this, but I do not know it xD), reminding me of Agnetha's outfit on the cover of Voulez-Vous, or Frida's silver "snakeskin" jumpsuit from 1974, just not as plunging. 

Bjorn's wearing a white suit jacket and red pants that also have some sort of design on the bottom of the pant legs.

And Benny's outfit is only seen from the side, but the silhouette of the outfit reminds me of his blue outfit from the 1979 tour, just short sleeved.  He seems to be wearing a matching top and trousers, in the same color, and there looks to be some sparkle.

Based on this snapshot, Bjorn's jacket has like this dark design going up the front, maybe with some sparkle, and he wears a white button down shirt with it.

To me, Bjorn's outfit looks very 1980s, whereas the girls' outfits are very early/mid-70s, but I have no further details on Benny's outfit so I don't really have an opinion on that.  

I'm hoping there will be more detailed photos of their outfits, but for now I hope this analysis is useful to anyone else interested in all the details of their costumes.  Here's hoping we get more high quality photos of their outfits because this girl really wants to sew. xD

Also should I try to make the motion-capture suits for my dolls as well as the futuristic outfits or is that overkill..? 

Blue Satin Suits

 So I made new ABBA doll costumes for the first time in a while. :)  

For a more detailed post, feel free to check out my sewing blog!