japan (fashion in context)

Japanese fashion is highly influential to western culture and fashion, the west has always had a deep fascination with japan. Japan is known for many things, one of them being Japanese street fashion

which in itself is highly varied and has very much influenced a lot of the western world especially artists and people in the music industry. Japanese street fashion can go from chic and sleek looks, to baggy comfortable oversized fashion to loud colourful and bright outfits of which many people in the western world would lose their minds over whereas its more normalised in japan and places more directly influenced by japanese culture. A particularly interesting part of Japanese fashion would be their world renowned denim. Japanese denim is known for its high quality, artsmanship, and unique dying techniques. Some well known japanese denim brands include evisu, momotaro, samurai, oni, japan blue jeans, and a couple more but these seemed the most

interesting with focus landing on one brand itself. Samurai jeans are a Japanese denim brand who have very interestingly mastered ‘the fade’ as stated in an article about different japanese denim brands. The founder of samurai denim is Tohru Nogami was apparently heavily inspired by classic levis styles and had experimented with samurai’s experiments with creating their own fabrics and dyes to achieve a finish that would adapt and fade depending on the wearer so that everyone would turn out with something unique. The idea of having a pair of jeans that tells a story about the wearers experience in said jeans and is unique in its wear based on the owner is fascinating and surely makes owning a pair of jeans that much more special and meaningful. Samurai constantly strive to push the boundaries in the realm of Japanese Selvedge denim and Indigo. With a meticulously developed brand ideology, all the remarkable Selvedge ID on Samurai Jeans feature a single strand of silver lamé to convey the gleam of the razor sharp sword of the Samurai. This is an interesting and quirky little add on that really adds to the character of this brand and these jeans. This brand with their

identifying add ons such as the silver lame on the back of their jeans to pay homage in a way towards their ancestors and the samurai that fought years prior. Samurai were a class of warriors that arose in the 10th century in japan, they performed military service until the 19th century. Samurai were elite, highly trained soldiers who were proficient in both sword and bow use. The samurai were an essential component of Japanese armies in the mediaeval period. This not only makes them very unique as a brand but also somewhat weirdly comforting. It's a beautiful way to pay homage and give recognition to people long before us who were integral to getting us to where we are today while including new modern technologies that really push the wow factor and uniqueness of this product and brand.

Bibliography:

● Japan Nakama | Japan's Best Denim Brands (written by Katie Hopkins)

● Samurai Jeans - Okayama Denim

● Samurai - World History Encyclopedia (by Mark Cartwright published on 05 July 2019

images:

• The Best Street Style From Tokyo Fashion Week Spring 2019: There’s a reason the street style in Tokyo is… | Japan fashion street, Cool street fashion, Tokyo fashion (pinterest.co.uk)

• https://deeceestyle.ch/products/samurai-slim-tapered-17-oz-jeans

• Koboto Santaro, a Japanese military commander Wellcome V0037661 - Samurai - Wikipedia