Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style

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Writer W. David Marx chats to David Hellqvist about his first book, cultural exchange in fashion and why Japanese designers now do Americana better than US brands Anyway, apart from that, I really enjoyed learning about the history of various subcultures and thought that the following two points were interesting: Denim trong counterculture tại Nhật Bản đầu những năm 1960, có rất nhiều điểm tương đồng với văn hóa Hippie tại Mỹ Denimhunters is a knowledge portal for denim enthusiasts and newcomers. Launched in 2011 as a pioneering denim blog, we’re a trustworthy source of denim knowledge and advice.

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!At the end of the book, I talk about people who are taking this relationship in whole new directions. The beginning of the book is about Japanese men copying American style, the second part is the massive importation of American clothing into Japan, but the new brands now, like Visvim and Engineered Garments, are designers who understand the history and understand the references, but are trying to make something new. When you see a Visvim shoe, it looks like a Visvim shoe. So there will always be brands just making replica versions of old American products. I think the next step is this whole new wave of creativity. Traditionally, the Ametora style was very Ivy League. In 1965, Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida published a now-cult photobook called Take Ivy, which documented the way students dressed at Ivy League universities in the US. It influenced Japanese baby boomers, who adopted the style for themselves. Do you avoid the limelight? Does having your photo taken make you uncomfortable? Do you think three belts is too many belts? Then K-pop fashion may not be for you. “It’s a real mix of high-end brands and trends,” says Standing. “You want to be adorned in the latest silhouettes, with the latest sneakers and extraordinary hair.” Key Brands 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. And we’re not talking about Uniqlo. The cult of Japanese menswear centres more on a nerdy, expensive strain of men’s fashion. It’s stuff for the purists: painstakingly made clothes that have been in style since at least the 1950s, more often than not classic American designs reimagined and often bettered. They call it Ametora.

Yet, with an ever-changing, and much more inclusive, fashion world these days, we can’t help but wonder how this grand influence came to be. As Japanese style is now known to be some of the most daring and desirable on the map, how exactly did it get to the point of international domination, with such a complex and seemingly restrictive history? What makes the connection between American and Japanese menswear industries so vital to the history and trajectory of global trends? Trong ảnh: Một cặp đôi MOBO & MOGA ở Ginza – Tokyo (ảnh chụp năm 1915 – thời kì trước Chiến Tranh Thế Giới thử Nhất) 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. 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. Throughout the years of Restoration, the Japanese government influenced and initiated radical transformations within the society, most drastically altering the male wardrobe from traditional to twentieth century. By exchanging high-class uniforms from long haired top knots and swords for three-piece suits and Napoleonic military uniforms, imported clothing steadily became a source of prestige and wealth.At first, this book will seem like it has a really narrow focus and that it might not appeal to people who aren't so interested in Japanese fashion. I do have an interest in fashion, especially denim, which is covered extensively in this book, but this book's appeal was how detailed and all-encompassing it was within its niche. The lessons imparted in this book about how culture travels (especially pre-internet), marketing, and the logistics of international trends, trade, import, and manufacturing, makes this book particularly fascinating and widens the scope of the book past fashion. A lot of this book is about Oxford cloth button downs and denim, though rarely together. It occurs to me that the two together now with a nice pair of boots might be considered a good look. But I'd warn anyone from trusting what I have to say about clothing. Japanese fashion is no longer simply a copy of American clothing, but a nuanced, culturally-rich tradition of its own. Japanese teenagers spend an inordinate amount of time, effort, money, and energy in pursuit of fashionable clothing, especially when compared to their global peers. America, with a population 2.5 times larger than Japan, has fewer than ten magazines focusing on men's style. Japan has more than 50. Japanese youth in Ivy Style. (Basic Books / Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style) Japanese youth in Ivy Style. (Basic Books / Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style)

Here, Marx explains how he came to write the book, the roots of the Japanese fascination with American style and how Ametora has been assimilated into Japanese culture. The book leads with a detailed review of the story of Levi Strauss (the man) and everything that lead up to the rivet patent. What really makes the book, though, are the stories of how challengers such as the Greenbaum Brothers, Neustadter Brothers and A. B. Elfelt & Co. invented alternative strengthening methods in the 1870s and ‘80s before the patent ran out. Additionally, Marx writes about the impact on the creation of streetwear such as BAPE and Japanese avant-garde brands such as Comme des Garcons (Junya Watanabe), Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and others managed to evoke on the Western fashion consciousness, representing a genuine two-way communication in style. He connects this to the explosion of Harajuku as THE most dynamic fashion location in the world ... a change that happened practically overnight.

It started in the mid-1960s just as the Baby Boomer generation hit college age and it’s continued from there. Tokyo has always been the centre of Japanese pop culture and it was the streets of Ginza in 1964 with the Miyuki Tribe when the first true youth consumer sub-culture appeared. While Gentleman isn’t on the list of references in Blue Blooded, this book plays a pivotal role for my work and motivation to write the book, which is why it deserves an honourable mention. Is there a problematic side to this – that one country immerses itself so much in the style and culture of another? Probably the two dominant strands in Ametora at the moment are this Ivy-derived look – Beams Plus, for example – and the more casual retro-inspired gear of the likes of Real McCoy’s which draws on America’s history of college sweatshirts, military graphics, vintage workwear and selvedge denim.

At the end of the book, I make the point that the whole menswear-blog scene of seven or eight years ago started because the whole culture of dressing up has sort of disappeared for American men. So young guys couldn’t just go to their dad and ask, “What’s the best suit to buy?” because their dads don’t know. So they had to start from basics the same way Japanese men did in the 1960s. The mashed-up, anything goes aesthetic favoured by Korea’s zeitgeist-y pop stars, who espouse a similarly genre-agnostic approach to music, is less a look and more a mindset. More is more, trends are fleeting but to be embraced wholesale, individuality is all, although ideally in a way that shows you get groupthink. In the mix here there’s preppy fashion, unstructured tailoring, big-brand streetwear and some ’80s denim for good measure. 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. Through my network, I got indispensable input about the history of denim and jeans, how denim is made, how jeans are made, and a lot more. I also relied on other denim books; some of them I’d read already, some had been on my reading list for years.If you're interested in men's elegance, you probably know that Japanese gentlemen are among the most educated and dapper men in the world. With a booming bespoke footwear industry, gifted shoemakers, many bespoke tailors opening ateliers, quality menswear brands and shops and excellent magazines specializing in classical menswear, Japan is one of the driving forces behind the current sartorial renaissance. These cleanup efforts proceeded steadily until August, when the switchboards at Tsukiji Police Station began lighting up with frantic phone calls. Ginza shop owners reported an infestation on the main promenade, Miyuki-dori, requiring immediate assistance from law enforcement: There were hundreds of Japanese teenagers hanging around in strange clothing ! The book itself is designed fashionably. The blue on the inside cover is likely Okayama trademark denim blue. There are no typos and grammatical errors - Marx executes to Japanese quality. Book Genre: Art, Art Design, Asia, Couture, Cultural, Design, Fashion, Historical, History, Japan, Nonfiction Japanese men are now considered style icons in the United States—just as American men were revered in Japan in the ‘50s, ‘60s and 70s. Motofumi Kogi, better known as “Poggy”, is but one example of prominent industry figures whose blend of tailoring and casual streetwear has come to typify the reigning aesthetic. Others, like Visvim designer Hiroki Nakamura or former Popeye Editor-in-Chief Takahiro Kinoshita, are icons within specific niches of contemporary American menswear, too.