I’ve known about Double Volante for a few years now, mostly through my talks with Studio D’Artisan, with whom Kuniyoshi-san often has a working relationship, particularly with their always interesting Champloo collaborations. I’ve also admired Kuniyoshi-san’s work from afar via Instagram, where he often posts his newest creations. But Okinawa being so far from Osaka, …
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 …
So how have you been? It’s been pretty boring lately actually. Boring? Yeah, I can’t go to the Tokyo store, we aren’t allowed to travel, you know… Ah yeah, for sure. But you know, jeans sales have actually been really good. You mean internet sales? Yeah, that too, but mostly wholesale. The Tokyo shop is …
Since all of the Covid madness descended upon us all earlier in the year, it’s been hard to get out and do interviews, but luckily a few weeks back I did manage to get down to Samurai’s main Osaka store and have a good catch up with one of my favorite people in the whole …
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 »
Chilling out with Toru Nogami, creator and CEO of Samurai Jeans. I recently took a drive down to Samurai Jeans headquarters in the Umeda area of Osaka to chat with Samurai Jeans founder, Toru Nogami. Nogami-san created Samurai Jeans in 1997 from very humble beginnings, and his jeans have become well-known around the world for …
I recently had a chance to question away to my heart’s content with one of the absolute legends of the Japanese denim world: Iron Heart’s Shinichi Haraki. Haraki-san created Iron Heart in 2003 and has been blowing us away with his heavy and hard-wearing clothing ever since. Between coming up with new ideas for the …