If the name Resolute, or even Yoshiyuki Hayashi, is not known to you, you would be forgiven. Every self-respecting denimhead will however know the name Denime, the company that Hayashi-san started back in 1988, a member of the glorious Osaka 5. Hayashi-san felt perhaps that the focus at Denime had started to stray from only making jeans and into the world of fashion so he left and formed his own company, Resolute, where he could carry on his tradition of making simply-styled, high-quality jeans.
Resolute has kept their focus narrowed and offers just four different cuts, Hayashi-san saying that even four is perhaps too many. Once he had the cuts decided he then turned his attention to the fabric. Hayashi-san didn’t want to just use the same denim he had been using at Denime decades ago so he set out to find some new fabrics, heading of course to Okayama to get the job done.
Describing the four cuts in a very basic way, Hayashi-san says the 710 is meant to evoke the 1960s style when worn on the Japanese body type. The 711 cut is a 1950s style, again styled for the Japanese body. Hayashi-san says that the jeans in the 50s were essentially work wear and weren’t meant to be stylish. Hayashi-san said he actually made the 711 pattern by examining children’s jeans from the 1950s and then just ‘blowing them up’ to adult size, these seeming to fit the Japanese better than the adult patterns of the same decade. These also use the lightest-weight denim of the four cuts, and uses thread, rivets, and buttons reminiscent of those used in the 1950s. The 712 is much more tapered, has a zipper fly, and uses sanforized denim. The 713 is the low-rise very of the 710. Hayashi-san also recommends washing the jeans weekly in a washer with regular detergent, then either hanging them to dry or even using a dryer. For Hayashi-san, not washing jeans as many denim enthusiasts do, is the worst thing for them. “Don’t worry so much about your jeans” he says, “Just wear them a lot and wash them a lot”. Advice many denimheads will not follow of course, but you’ve got to love his casual, laid-back approach.