mizanation

time to talk bartacking. bartacking requires another machine. we moved to where this machine was. in the room were some of his favorite vintage t-shirts:

in the corner was a mic and a recording machine. i asked kuniyoshi-san what it was used for and he said his mom volunteers for an organization for visually impaired people. she records herself reading books and burns the audio onto cd. this way, people who are visually impaired can enjoy books and magazines that haven't been published in braille or audio. thought that was pretty cool of her.

anyways, here is the actual bartacking machine:

Bonne chance à toi, mais je trouve que 2 semaines ce n’est pas asse.

merci, monsieur. maintenant, je comprend an peu l'francais parce que monsieur pimsleur. mais, pas tres bien.

http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/enseigner-apprendre-francais/accueil_apprendre.php

look here they have many good programs )

merci, monsieur.

Miz, that's a bold mission, but best of luck. How long are you staying?

Here are some films to check out:

De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté

Le Scaphandre et le papillon

La Haine

Un long dimanche de fiançailles

Rois et reine

Caché

Léon

Taxi (+ sequels)

Entre les murs

Etre et Avoir

Cyrano de Bergerac

Son Frere

L'Humanité

merci, monsieur tisswat. une semaine a tokyo, puis une semaine a paris.

ce soir, je regarde "la cite des enfants perdus," peut etre.

thanks for the suggestions.

more french movies and tv shows please. i am going to shoot for a movie a day.

also, music suggestions too. thanks.

i am flying to paris in two weeks.

anyone have any french movie or tv suggestions so i can learn french?

i am also going to go through the pimsleur audio course.

any other tips are appreciated.

as kuniyoshi-san speaks no english and has no computer skills, he has asked me to handle all his orders. you can pm me.

yeah, those flaps are where the hidden rivets go. i will post that part later.

done.

i have decided to have him draw a treble clef and staff with some notes. not sure which melody to have him put on there. two i am thinking of are "blue in green" by miles davis (wasn't thinking of BiG, but ironically, it's one of my favorite miles davis songs) and "naima" by john coltrane. i'm open for suggestions...

he spins the fabric around real fast while he does this.

finishing up.

more sewing. kuniyoshi-san says he purposely makes the stitching a little uneven, so people can tell that it's hand-stitched.

we discussed how ironic it is that back in the day, people went to great lengths to do away with all the human errors in the process, but now, the "errors" are the only way you can tell if there was any humanity involved in the process at all. there is a scene in the will smith movie seven pounds where they talk about this.

sewing happens.

backpocket stitching. kuniyoshi-san has elevated it to somewhat of an artform. he can stitch pretty much any design onto denim. he also can get ANY design or photo embroidered on denim--i will show you this in another post.

one of his customers had requested that kuniyoshi-san's brand, double volante be stitched onto one of the back pockets. here's how he does it.

first, he writes out the lettering in chalk.

p.s. before i sign off tonight, i want to mention that kuniyoshi-san reminds me a lot of gordon at BiG. the reason why is that they both slaved away in a garment factory for years to learn a dying art--now, they are among the remaining experts of the craft of making clothes the old-fashioned way. they both have an incredible passion for what they do that is well past obsession. they have both worked on the most prestigious clothing brands in their respective fields. and also, they are both truly humble, down to earth cats--that are finally, reluctantly, starting to get their shine. big ups to big g in nyc. when these guys finally meet it will be epic.

got 3 hours of sleep last night, gotta take a nap. will post more later.

btw, if you check the new issue of lightning magazine you will see kuniyoshi-san representing okinawa!

miz how much? shrink form tag size or shrink to tag size?

i need at least a 14 15 16 oz denim with vintage-y feel back pocket arcuates like levis can this be done?

um, holler at me via pm, man.

i got a little surprise from kuniyoshi-san today. he is working on a brand new batch of jean jackets and he made a couple samples. he gave me one as a gift!

he still has to put in the hardware, so it is looking kinda plain. actually, at this stage, it looks like the jacket i made a long time ago in brooklyn.

it fits a little big but it will shrink down to size after i soak it.

ok, spent the whole day with kuniyoshi-san and took a ton of pictures. the amount of knowledge kuniyoshi-san has surprises me and i've met a lot of jean experts. today, i got to know a little bit more about who he is and why he does this.

he says every young person in japan who is into denim wants to be a designer, but not him. he just wanted to learn the denim craft. to learn what he knows, you have to spend years in a factory in okayama getting paid a crap wage making hundreds of jeans a day. now, he says, almost all of the workers in the japanese factories are foreign laborers--no young japanese person is crazy or stupid enough to work in a denim factory.

his main teacher at the factory was a 65 years old lady (now 75 years old) who has been a professional seamstress since she was 15 years old. she has seen the evolution of the japanese denim industry from the beginning. this lady and the other old-timers took kuniyoshi-san under their wing and taught him the lessons that they learned over 50 years in the business. they treated him like a son because it was so unusual for a young japanese man to take a low-paying factory job. even to this day, he will visit his old teachers to improve his technique. he truly is one of the last old-school japanese denim artisans.

in japanese, the word for "artisan" is "shokunin." to be a shokunin, in the japanese sense of the word, you must dedicate your entire life to your craft. everyday is spent on improvement of your skills no matter how mundane and no matter how well you have mastered them. he is constantly searching for the perfect stitch. for this, i have a huge amount of respect for mr. kuniyoshi.

i can't tell you explicitly which jeans he has helped manufacture, but he has helped to sew the most coveted and expensive high-end denim brands in the world. it's crazy to me that years ago when i was lusting over certain jeans that he was in a stuffy factory in okayama making them.

anyways, i'm glad i met this guy. who would have thought that there would be someone like this living in koza city, okinawa?

Ohh jackets. Interesting. Could you get a rough estimate of how much one would be, Miz? Thanks!

i'm with kuniyoshi-san right now. about to head to his lab.

he says jackets are about 40000 yen. everything custom of course.

yes, he makes denim shirts and jackets--with selvage gussets if you want.

Can he make denim work shirts?, with selvedge gussets and all?

can we see him attach the pocket to the front piece?

i will take pictures of this when he sews my jeans on tuesday.

i will be ordering jeans from him definitely!

but does he have like standard cuts? lets say a 55 501 cut?

yes, he has a standard 50's 501 cut.

he says he does it this way so that he can add the puckering on the outside pocket stitching. also, it does away with an extra ironing step.

i asked him if it's cool that i'm showing all the little tricks he's accumulated over 10 years in the business and he says it's fine. "no secrets!" he says. probably not the best business motto, but it makes for an informative thread. i trust that people who are impressed with his work and experience will show their appreciation by ordering jeans from him.

he actually adds another stitch after he flips it inside out. more work, but a cleaner pocket, without any exposed overlock stitching.

finished pocket:

he uses a little tool to get the corner: