frideswide

In London, you can find it at the Japan Centre (Piccadilly).

Just curious who, amongst these US shops, use a Union Special?

Yes, it wasn't a bad exhibition (I saw it when it was at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester earlier this year, so I can't comment specifically on the Brighton installation), although possibly more of interest to the craft-dyer than anyone else. As ringring mentioned, they did have a few pair of (mainly Gap...) jeans hanging about to illustrate the use of indigo in denim. There was a pair of unremarkable 1940s-era Cone Mills overalls, but that was about it -- I'm sure some SuFu members could have lent them a much better selection.

The exhibition coincided with the release of a new edition (which as far as I can make out is just a reprinting) of Balfour-Paul's 1998 book 'Indigo' . The book reads a bit like PhD thesis work, and in fact grew out of her actual thesis "Indigo in the Arab World" (Exeter University, Dept. of Arabic and Islamic Studies), a work which led the British Museum ethnology department to ask her to expand it into a book on the worldwide use of indigo. Interestingly, I noticed Kurabo mills (Osaka) was one of the sponsors of the book's reprinting.

I wouldn't say it's worth a special trip, but if you happen to be in Brighton anyway (and why not..?), go see it, as this is the last stop on its tour. Admission free.

My recent collection.

Lee 1944, Magaret Howell for Edwin , Deadstock Wrangler from the 60's

...Respect..

There are numerous photos of John Lennon wearing both Lee 101J and Wrangler 11MJ jackets. (See Paul T's book "Denim", The Lightning Denim Style Book, inter alia). I don't know of any online, though.

i say somewhere in the middle because what if you gain some weight? lose weight?

i'm selling the iron heart belt if anyone's interested... i got it in an XL... i'm at the smallest hole now due to stretching... i wear a 34w in US sizes and 36 in japanese...

http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=40478

Mmm, I thought the point of the IronHeart belt is that you could undo the two screws behind the buckle and cut the free square end (not the tounge) to whatever length you want (punching two new holes), provided the belt was long enough in the first place. No?

Kapital TH-Straight -- my jeans of the moment. very hairy, 13,5 oz, dark and soft - absolutely loaded with lovely dark indigo. Very high and narrow waisted -- will only fit quite slim people properly. Feel like cowboy 'slacks' rather than jeans. Size runs true.

Japan-stock Evisu 2000 No.2 -- underrated jean. 14 oz green-cast, slubby, high contrast fade. Size down like mad (-2). Sanforized, but a bit short on leg length - avoid if you are much over 6 foot tall.

Dry Bones -- Sanforized; size way down (like -2). Nice denim, but will give you a lower-contrast fade. Probably not worth the effort.

LVC (all models) -- have never got a good fade from modern-day Cone Mills denim, sorry to say.

Iron Heart --- great for hard bicyle-riding, garden-work, and every other kind of job where you will really really (really..) mistreat your clothing. But the denim is too smooth and the indigo too pale to be really classic denim. Contrast not great. Size true.

Yen 105 --- Unusual indigo colour, almost purple. Also, brown (not white) weft. You must really never wash them, though. Even Bears, who one-wash every pair of jeans they sell, don't wash these. Unsanforized, but size down anyway, maybe -2, and just wear the f**k out of them.

Edwin Lee (all models) --- probably Real McCoy or Warehouse Lee repros are preferable, because these develop a slightly 'muddy' fade. All left-hand twill denim is harder to fade than right-hand twill (maybe because it has a softer hand), although eventually it can be done. Sanorized. Size down -2.

Samurai --- all great, All un-sanforized. Lovely long legs. Size down -1. They will eventually fit you.

It's common to use light brown to overdye jeans. The denim still looks like denim, only darker ---- the normally white weft taking on a brownish tint and the blue darkening. This is especially useful in the case where jeans have turned a kind of turquoise or baby blue and you want to get a deeper blue sulphur-top effect.

Since only a relatively light overdye is required, this can actually be accomplished using things like tea, coffee, or fermented persimmon juice ('kakishibu'). I prefer kakishibu, which is available in craft shops like Tokyu Hands. Here are two different types I use.

i was told that washing the jeans ensures the thread used to repair the jeans shrinks and all that jazz which makes it stronger than just repairing and wearing.

Makes sense, although the three pairs of jeans I brought in to "the Denim Doctor" (Bears' in Shimokitazawa) were unwashed when I brought them in, and in the same state afterwards (sort of feel sorry for them now....). There are many places which will refuse to repair uncleaned items for hygiene reasons.

Kapital No.4 denim:

http://www.kapital.jp/e-store/zoom_img.php?p_item_key=354

Evisu No.2 'tigerline' (i.e. orange & black) selvage is greencast, as mentioned above. Evisu No.2 redline selvage (rare, but still out there) is redcast.

Most Edwin Lee repros are greencast.

Jeans are fundamentally different from wine or esoteric race cars -- they are not in essence luxury items: they are proletarian workers' clothing, and that very fact forms the core of their appeal. The transformed question of "What is the ultimate in proletarian workers clothing?" can be seen to be suspect on the face of it.

With a few exotic exceptions, a pair of Samurais or Sugarcanes, even though they cost a lot in today's money, are not really superior in terms of materials or crafstmanship to a pair of deadstock Levis, Lee, or Wranglers from the late 1940s. Sometimes it's more difficult or costly to reproduce the original methods, and that is largely responsible for the seemingly high cost.

In some sense asking what the 'ultimate' in anything is endorses the consumerist ethic (i.e. aspiring to have "the best"). Jeans are if anything anti-consumerist, in the sense that you can wear the same pair every single day and not buy any other item of clothing.

If the original poster is indeed a journalist, I agree with the reply which said 'lazy, bad journalism'. More likely it is just some 16 year old asking the same tired question: "hey you guys, what is, like, the best jeans out there..?" If you are a journalist... then adopt an air of some humility: read this forum for at least a year, get the books and the magazines mentioned here (Paul T's book, all the Lightning mags, etc). Preferably make a trip or two to Japan. THEN you might finally have an interesting article to write... instead of some throwaway article in an airline magazine heralding the 'hot new trend'...

>>Go to Americaya 610 at Ueno station on the JR Yamanote Line.

I'll second that.. America-ya in Ueno has a good selection of Samurais. The shop is below (south) of the Yamanote-line tracks (the shopping street runs on both sides). Pick up some Sammie T-shirts & the like while you're there.

Bears in Shimokitazawa has some too, and is a friendly shop, but they are all one-wash (Bears wash them themselves).

Bears is also home of the "Denim Doctor".. bring them any jeans you want repaired.

When speaking of Wrangler repros, bear in mind that Blue Bell did not introduce broken twill into their Wrangler line until about 1964 -- before then they used left-hand twill same as Lee. Thus the great classic models (1947 11MW, etc) were originally left-handed.

Neil, you are most welcome to our friendly community. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowlege and experience. Of course, we are a bit behind the curve compared to some of the Japanese boards, but we like to think this is best english-language resource on the net. We've got some published experts and authors (like Paul Trynka) with us, some denim mill representatives (one from Italy and one from Turkey), and lately we've even attracted some Japanese enthusiasts and some Japanese makers to participate, despite the language difficulties for them.

I liked what little I saw of Kato jeans when they were stocked in shops like Liberty -- very innovative designs! --- so I was a bit sad when they seemed to disappear from the shelves. Who are your European stockists now?

The salient feature of the 'export models' seems to be that they lack the red tab and Levis-alike back pocket stitching. This may be Samurai's solution to the problem of Levis legal action outside Japan, in which case it's reasonable to expect all third-party offshore retailers such as Take5 and BlueInGreen to eventually be switched over to the export line instead of the onshore domestic Japanese line. Sugarcane is apparently similarly redesigning its back pockets in response.

I was talking to the very nice chaps in Duffer of St George in Covent Garden the other day -- they said the Levis legal people had forced them to cut the red tabs off all their Evisus.

It's always raining here in the U.K. too...

I haven't had a problem with raw denim and rain... rainwater is quite soft and doesn't seem to cause shrinkage or degrade the finish of dry denim much. One thing to be careful of, though, is if you get soaked through to the skin: it is easy to 'bag' the knees out on wet denim.

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Mmm.. do you mean something like this?

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They are almost certainly fake, but for US$50 you might still consider them good value I suppose.

On the other hand, if you're going to spend all the time and effort breaking in a a pair of raw denim, you may as well start off with some quality denim so the end result will be worth having. You can probably get some genuine Japanese No 2 Evisu (with or without the gull wings) for around US$200 + shipping + bid service cost if any

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hinoya/119788/143849/

Another appealing point is that they're made in the Kojima district of Kurashiki (倉敷）... effectively one of the spiritual homes of Japanese denim --- the main mill of Kurabo was originally located here, and there is a Kurabo museum you can visit. I guess in our American friends' terms it is something like the "Greensboro N.C." of Japan.

I notice they've just closed their London Saville Row shop. Sign on the door said the shop will become 'mobile', whilst they will continue their online presence.

Samurai just put special soap on the market....

For those who are intersted..

This soap has been out for some time (actually some years). It is commercially available in the Japanese market under the name of "Thunder Red"

http://home.b02.itscom.net/thunder/aboutthunderred.htm

I use it regularly on my jeans and indigo shirts, with very good results. It's chief property is the oil component is made from soy-bean oil, which has a very low melting point, and washes out very cleanly.

Nice photo (appreciate the natural light) and nice collection.

The Pherrow's and the 45rpm paricularly stand out.

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Mmm... Lee Japan 101Z is the closest I can think of, in terms of fit.

In addition, both the Lee Japan 101B/Z and the Evisu No. 2 'tiger-line' (i.e. orange and black) selvage are sanforized green-cast denim. [The older 'first type' Evisu No. 2 red-line selvage was red-cast, but this is out of production, although you can still find deadstock samples.]

Mmm... Lee Japan 101Z is the closest I can think of, in terms of fit.

In addition, both the Lee Japan 101B/Z and the Evisu No. 2 'tiger-line' (i.e. orange and black) selvage are sanforized green-cast denim. [The older 'first type' Evisu No. 2 red-line selvage was red-cast, but this is out of production, although you can still find deadstock samples.]

Japanese brands haven't just "emerged" simply because Americans have finally started to be interested (like about last year...) --- the denim 'boom' in Japan took place in the late 1980's/1990's, and has been going on in Europe for at least five years. This is not something 'new'.

And yes, as Minya says, PRPS is not a Japanese brand; and Iron Heart started only a couple of years ago.

Read the long history of posts in this forum and learn...

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