I mean excuse me? Takuya Kimura is an icon in Japan and probably out of Japan too. The “questionable talent” bit sounds vaguely insulting, especially since he’s trying to explain Japanese fashion and Japanese culture to an American audience – it just sounds like after all the trouble he took to take various subcultures in Japan seriously, he could not bother to do the same for pop culture.

Published in 1996, Vintage Denim is obviously quite dated. Like Sullivan’s Jeans and From Cowboys to Catwalks, it tells the story of how jeans went from workwear to fashion. But unlike the works of Marx or Sullivan, Vintage Denim doesn’t feel as thoroughly researched. It’s more superficial.I also appreciated the parts about how the constant fashion changes led to clashes with the establishment, including police performing mass arrests of fashionable students hanging out in Ginza. As one aggrieved student said in the Asahi Shimbun: What's wrong with wearing cool clothing and walking through Ginza? Were not like those country bumpkins around Ikebukuro or Shinjuku.There were even hippies in Japan! With all the other copying of America that Japan did I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow I was. I love the basics of Beams Plus, which combines traditional styles with contemporary tastes,” says Marx. The label originated out of the American Life Shop Beams store, which opened in February 1976 in Tokyo. Originally fitted out like a UCLA student dorm the store sold imported American goods (including the country’s first Nike trainers) before eventually developing their own lines. James Sullivan’s book, Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon, was one of the books I hadn’t read before I began working on Blue Blooded. And, boy, was I missing out!

Adults may have defeated the Miyuki Tribe, but Japanese youth would triumph in the greater war. Around the globe, from the 1960s onward, rebellious teenagers spurned parents and authorities and forged their own unique cultures, breaking free from their narrow identities as students. In Japan, the first and most important step was to replace the standard-issue school uniform with their own choice of stylish clothing. This interest in fashion started among youth from elite families, but spread to the masses in tandem with the country’s miraculous economic growth and explosion of mass media. Since the Ivy takeover of Ginza, Japan has been on a fifty-year trajectory towards its current status as the world most style-obsessed nation. Absolutely. I guess I’m also taking for granted the fact that America has really caught up in terms of certain products. Like, you don’t have to buy Japanese denim if you want quality raw, unsanforized denim. A lot of American brands make them. But Japanese denim did sort of take over in terms of being the most reliable vintage-y-feeling selvedge denim, but also Cone Mills would have never started making their selvedge again had they not seen Japanese brands pulling their selvedge looms. The whole Levi’s Vintage Clothing brand started in Japan before the United States, about two years prior. At first the idea of raw selvedge was seen as a crazy Japan thing, but then they realized they could do it in the U.S. But I don’t want to take anything away from the U.S. and say that Japan caused this revival. There was also a large influence from Hong Kong, specifically Hypebeast, which created a bridge between products coming from Japan and the United States.Ametora are theJapaneseversions of these styles, and what ties them together is the fact that they’re all made today with great reverence and understanding of the past, and a dedication to replicate or even surpass the quality of the original American versions.” These are the denim books from Blue Blooded’s list of references I consider must-reads for any denimhead. Image from the launch of Ametora at Warby Parker. Book #1: Ametora by W. David Marx

It’s never been easier to get information. With the tap of a finger, you can find the answer to virtually any question you have. And with video becoming ever more present as it gets easier to create, learning is getting even more accessible. Look closely at any typically "American" article of clothing these days, and you may be surprised to see a Japanese label inside. From high-end denim to oxford button-downs, Japanese designers have taken the classic American look—known as ametora, or "American traditional"—and turned it into a huge business for companies like Uniqlo, Kamakura Shirts, Evisu, and Kapital. This phenomenon is part of a long dialogue between Japanese and American fashion; in fact, many of the basic items and traditions of the modern American wardrobe are alive and well today thanks to the stewardship of Japanese consumers and fashion cognoscenti, who ritualized and preserved these American styles during periods when they were out of vogue in their native land. I don't recall how I came across W. David Marx's Ametora, but it's almost certainly one of the best books I'll read this year--and this in spite of the fact that I understand neither fashion nor style. Much of this book is about how Japanese businessmen copied Ivy league prep style in spite of some public pressure against it. Marx explains that Tokyo “law enforcement swept the streets in search of overly fashionable youth” (5) at one point. In spite of the odds, that initial venture led to an intense interest in American style. That market led to the Japanese saving all of the American designs and often also technology used to create mid-20th century denim, etc. When American designers began to look for clothing designs that did not rely on mass production techniques, they wound up finding the information to make quality clothing not in America but in Japan. It would be difficult to list all of the things that Marx explores in telling this broad story, but I'll leave off saying I found it fascinating.

Modern Rocker

Why do you think it is that the Japanese, arguably, do American and British style better than the Americans and Brits? In all, both men “changed the face of fashion in their own ways”. While Hiroshi Fujiwara brought the underground to mainstream, Japanese culture, putting Japan on the international map of cultural elites, Nigo introduced Americans to the idea of quality, top-dollar, Japanese-made, American style. Through this, Japan became a cultural epicenter, one that cultural leaders around the world could no longer ignore. I'm not reading the entire book because I'm not that interested in fashion. I got this from the library because it is literally THE ONLY book my system had on modern Japanese culture. How is that? The Tokyo government paid special attention to Ginza, the crown jewel of the city, knowing that tourists would gravitate towards its luxury department stores and posh cafés. Ginza’s community leaders eliminated any possible suggestion of postwar poverty, even replacing wooden garbage cans with modern plastic ones.