'geeking out about the details of things is a core part of the male psyche.
our ability to obsessively seek and conquer the lesser-known mysteries of the universe – like just exactly which Sonic Youth album has the best guitar sound or how you actually play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons – has given rise to a slew of influential, but not-very-cool pop-culture institutions. like Top Gear. and 4Chan.
we don’t tend to associate this kind of obsessive nerdiness with the world of fashion. but there’s a certain subset of male style-o-philes that take great pleasure in discussing, comparing and contrasting the latest drops from the most obscure fashion brands. and for these guys, few things are talked about with more reverence than the innovative menswear brands that have emerged from Japan in the last decade.
there are so many tiny things to pore over in each product, so many minute-but-crucial innovations each season – perfect for guys who are into fashion but can’t get excited by the flamboyant, slightly girly flourishes on European men’s runways.
'the amount of detail that goes into Japanese brands and production, I think, is unrivalled,' says Christiaan Ashworth, co-owner of Newcastle’s End Clothing, one of the UK’s most savvy and forward-looking menswear boutiques. 'British production’s fantastic, as is American, but...in Japan, the consideration that goes into the products... sometimes it even seems crazy, the lengths that they will go to.'
as examples, he cites pieces like a shirt by the much-hyped technical label White Mountaineering with printed inner seams, or the way in which Hiroki Nakamura, the designer of the ultra-premium men’s brand Visvim, completely redesigns every piece, from basics to the top-priced items, each season. 'whereas other brands might make a bestseller and make it in a colour the next season, he won’t do that because it’s all about design innovation,' Ashworth says.
all this is well and good as a kind of internet/fashion-porn experience, but historically, getting hold of this stuff has been prohibitively difficult and expensive. 'Japanese brands have always been fairly insular and wary of being too global,' Tim Sturmheit, a buyer at the men’s e-tailer and boutique Oki-Ni, says. 'they like to stick to their own and what they know and theywork in a certain way that’s quite difficult for British buyers to deal with. the way that they wholesale is different and you also have to pay for shipping.
so they end up being very expensive, a lot more expensive than they are in Japan.'
but in the past couple of seasons, especially this spring, it seems more Japanese brands are making their way to the UK than ever. at End Clothing, there are new arrivals in Sophnet, a poppy, premium street and casualwear brand, and the related label Uniform Experiment, a collaboration between Sophnet and Harajuku style legend Hiroshi Fujiwara. Oki-Ni has just added Undercover, one of the original, and most influential Japanese street-styleinspired luxury brands, to its roster.
meanwhile, Natalie Massenet’s men’s e-tailer, Mr Porter, is among a select few stores that, as of spring 2012, are now stocking one of Japan’s biggest clothing labels, Beams Plus, a line that offers a characteristically Japanese take on classic American clothing from the 1940s and 1950s.
then there’s the emergence of retailers like the Dalston-based showroom and online shop LN-CC (or Late Night Chameleon Club), which, since it launched at the end of 2010, has done a pioneering job of bringing some of the most obscure and interesting Japanese brands – like Tokyo’s current style frontrunner Sasquatchfabrix – to a hungry UK market.
so, why is this all happening now? first of all, Ashworth says, the accessibility of information on the internet has increased demand. 'you can find a product and read all about what its different features are really quickly,' he says. 'there’s more people in the UK that are aware of these brands than ever before. secondly, there’s the recession and the disaster in Japan last year. previously they haven’t had to look outside of Japan, but now, because of these factors, they are starting to look for other good sources of income.'
Oki-Ni’s Sturmheit points to the undeniably blossoming scene for independent menswear retail in the UK. 'Japanese brands are realising what potential there is here, partly with making money and partly because there’s more stores that fit their mentality,' he says.
given the Japanese way of doing business, which is based on close personal relationships and trust established through face-to-face meetings, this last development is more important than you might think. Keishi Endo, the vice-president of Beams, is keen to underline this. 'we’d like to treasure the good relationship with stores sharing the same concept of values all over the world,' he says when asked if he has further plans to expand Beams Plus in the UK. 'this is more important than expansion.''
- Japanese fashion: Eastern Promises, Adam Welch
our ability to obsessively seek and conquer the lesser-known mysteries of the universe – like just exactly which Sonic Youth album has the best guitar sound or how you actually play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons – has given rise to a slew of influential, but not-very-cool pop-culture institutions. like Top Gear. and 4Chan.
we don’t tend to associate this kind of obsessive nerdiness with the world of fashion. but there’s a certain subset of male style-o-philes that take great pleasure in discussing, comparing and contrasting the latest drops from the most obscure fashion brands. and for these guys, few things are talked about with more reverence than the innovative menswear brands that have emerged from Japan in the last decade.
there are so many tiny things to pore over in each product, so many minute-but-crucial innovations each season – perfect for guys who are into fashion but can’t get excited by the flamboyant, slightly girly flourishes on European men’s runways.
'the amount of detail that goes into Japanese brands and production, I think, is unrivalled,' says Christiaan Ashworth, co-owner of Newcastle’s End Clothing, one of the UK’s most savvy and forward-looking menswear boutiques. 'British production’s fantastic, as is American, but...in Japan, the consideration that goes into the products... sometimes it even seems crazy, the lengths that they will go to.'
as examples, he cites pieces like a shirt by the much-hyped technical label White Mountaineering with printed inner seams, or the way in which Hiroki Nakamura, the designer of the ultra-premium men’s brand Visvim, completely redesigns every piece, from basics to the top-priced items, each season. 'whereas other brands might make a bestseller and make it in a colour the next season, he won’t do that because it’s all about design innovation,' Ashworth says.
all this is well and good as a kind of internet/fashion-porn experience, but historically, getting hold of this stuff has been prohibitively difficult and expensive. 'Japanese brands have always been fairly insular and wary of being too global,' Tim Sturmheit, a buyer at the men’s e-tailer and boutique Oki-Ni, says. 'they like to stick to their own and what they know and theywork in a certain way that’s quite difficult for British buyers to deal with. the way that they wholesale is different and you also have to pay for shipping.
so they end up being very expensive, a lot more expensive than they are in Japan.'
but in the past couple of seasons, especially this spring, it seems more Japanese brands are making their way to the UK than ever. at End Clothing, there are new arrivals in Sophnet, a poppy, premium street and casualwear brand, and the related label Uniform Experiment, a collaboration between Sophnet and Harajuku style legend Hiroshi Fujiwara. Oki-Ni has just added Undercover, one of the original, and most influential Japanese street-styleinspired luxury brands, to its roster.
meanwhile, Natalie Massenet’s men’s e-tailer, Mr Porter, is among a select few stores that, as of spring 2012, are now stocking one of Japan’s biggest clothing labels, Beams Plus, a line that offers a characteristically Japanese take on classic American clothing from the 1940s and 1950s.
then there’s the emergence of retailers like the Dalston-based showroom and online shop LN-CC (or Late Night Chameleon Club), which, since it launched at the end of 2010, has done a pioneering job of bringing some of the most obscure and interesting Japanese brands – like Tokyo’s current style frontrunner Sasquatchfabrix – to a hungry UK market.
so, why is this all happening now? first of all, Ashworth says, the accessibility of information on the internet has increased demand. 'you can find a product and read all about what its different features are really quickly,' he says. 'there’s more people in the UK that are aware of these brands than ever before. secondly, there’s the recession and the disaster in Japan last year. previously they haven’t had to look outside of Japan, but now, because of these factors, they are starting to look for other good sources of income.'
Oki-Ni’s Sturmheit points to the undeniably blossoming scene for independent menswear retail in the UK. 'Japanese brands are realising what potential there is here, partly with making money and partly because there’s more stores that fit their mentality,' he says.
given the Japanese way of doing business, which is based on close personal relationships and trust established through face-to-face meetings, this last development is more important than you might think. Keishi Endo, the vice-president of Beams, is keen to underline this. 'we’d like to treasure the good relationship with stores sharing the same concept of values all over the world,' he says when asked if he has further plans to expand Beams Plus in the UK. 'this is more important than expansion.''
- Japanese fashion: Eastern Promises, Adam Welch
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