Thus, the look is defined only by the hair accessory. I did, however, include several, because even the hair accessory isn’t an individual object. 

3. Dancer’s Hands

My delicate dancer’s hands, which I’d once nurtured with the finest creams, now began to peel like the papery outside of an onion, and were stained all over the color of a bruise […] I worked very hard during those years. But every night when I went to bed, I thought of Gion.

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Product Info: Dress – A’GACI, Shoes – Lord & Taylor, Earrings – Forever 21, Gloves – Unique Vintage, Hand Cream – Neutrogena, Wallet – Fossil 

Surprise! My final look is not, in fact, an outfit representing an end point of the novel– although it’s not too far from the end, occurring after Japan has surrendered after being torn apart by war. Geisha, like everyone involved in artistic professions, have been forced to leave Gion to find other work to survive.

This scene sticks out to me because it really feels like rebirth and renewal. Even the image of Sayuri’s peeling hands seems to be literally revealing her new skin underneath, and the break from her years as a geisha really clears her mind and changes how she views both herself and her profession. In a moment of clarity, she realizes that she appreciates the art of being a geisha more than she had known, and wants to return to that life not as the naïve, young Sayuri, but as the more mature, experienced Sayuri.

I threw in the hand cream as a little tongue-in-cheek gesture to represent this snippet from the novel, but the rest of the outfit consists of cleaner lines and simple colors. Sayuri does not view glamour and luxury in the same way that she did before, and this experience of helping the kimono maker during wartime teaches her so much about the creation of art and how it’s different for everyone.