Nestled in the wilds of northern Japan there exists a clothing company that for years has been quietly and confidently making some of the best vintage-inspired clothing in the world. I’d heard bits and pieces about Deluxeware over the years, but because they haven’t had much of an overseas presence, I didn’t know a lot …
In the minds of most, Iron Heart is known for their beautiful heavyweight denim and over-engineered construction, so when I recently stumbled upon a picture of their gorgeous new slubby fabric I almost dropped my phone then and there. Haraki-san has traditionally stuck fairly close to his biker roots, focusing on items that he himself …
I had a chance to head down to Kojima last month and chat with Hajime and Ryo over at TCB about a few things. TCB is one of those brands that, for me, epitomizes great Japanese denim. They are passionate, knowledgeable, friendly, started from nothing, and do almost everything themselves in-house. I wanted to ask …
The Strike Gold had always been a bit of an enigma for me, not so much because there’s anything inherently mysterious about them, but more so because they kind of sat on the periphery of my denim imagination, their company being small enough to quietly slip under the radar while steadily producing some of the …
I must admit that I was a bit of a latecomer to UES. Even though they are based in Osaka, I had never visited their shop until a few months back after finally checking out their website and purchasing one of their fantastic flannels. The flame was lit, and I had to know more. For …
Japanese jeans. Known the world over for their emphasis on quality, traditional production, and attention to detail, jeans makers in the Land of the Rising Sun are able to command premium prices for premium products, limited-edition models sometimes selling out within days or even hours of release. Japan, and Okayama prefecture in particular, have become …
I know a lot of you have been looking forward to this one, so my apologies for taking so long to finally getting around to interviewing the man, the myth, the legend: Yoshiyuki Hayashi. Hayashi-san has been in the denim game for a long time, first co-founding Denime back in ’88, and now running Resolute …
I recently had a chance to sit down again with Iron Heart Boss, Shinichi Haraki, at his store in Osaka. It had a been a while since we chatted so it was good to get an update from him on how things have been lately for him and his company. Always a joy to talk …
Here we go with the continuation of our interviews on Japanese Denim and Covid-19. If you’ve arrived here directly and have missed Part 1, it’s here. Enjoy! 3. I think we can all agree that the whole coronavirus situation is pretty awful, but are there any potential positives that you’ve found in all of this? …
Denim Distancing: Japanese Denim and Covid-19, Pt.2 Read More »
As the coronavirus (or, properly, Covid-19) continues its spread across the globe, people are finding themselves confronting anxiety and inconvenience on one end of the scale, through to serious financial trouble and full lockdowns, right down to serious illness, and even death on the other end. It is against this unprecedented and somewhat surreal backdrop …
Denim Distancing: Japanese Denim and Covid-19, Pt.1 Read More »