Underrobe

But the next item, the underrobe, isn't really an undergarment at all. When a geisha performs a dance, or sometimes even when she walks along the street, she might raise the hem of her kimono in her left hand to keep it out of the way. This has the effect of exposing the underrobe below the knees; so, you see, the pattern and fabric of the underrobe must be coordinated with the kimono.

The late-afternoon sun lit the expensive, brocaded silk of her overrobe and the almost equally expensive, fine-woven linen underrobe beneath it.

Her fingers gathered up the clothing almost mechanically, stepping into silk trousers, tying the long strings of undergarments around her torso, wrapping over them first a cinnamon-colored underrobe, then one in rust, and over them both a heavy brocade garment in green and gold and black, hanging in swaying folds to trail across the floor behind her.