ZawBanjito

"Slightly trendy West Coast celebrity occasionally sports expensive Japanese import clothing."

I've got both the intro and conclusion in one sentence, but lack an effect argument.

Oh for God's sake... I just looked again... 83cm inseam, becoming 82cm AFTER 34inch waists. Thanks a lot, Tiny Japan.

Pigskin!!!

You LIE, snake-tongue!

Good LORD, he lies not! It says so on Hinoya. The model pictured has pigskin pocket reinforcements. (Foaming at mouth)

If pigskin is present, cash must be exchanged for GOODS! Drew, do they ALL have pigskin, or just the Green Earth models?

The only ones that I've seen confirmed to not fade are these collabs with Aikido. If you follow the link, you can see they actually get darker. Having a quick read over their site, only their top price model (which is not the 81,900yen G003-A but the astonishingly 178,500yen G000-T) explicitly claims to not fade, but I expect all the top-price Gold Label models are the same way. Since they do sell some washed models in the lower prices, I'm guessing these do fade, although search in Japanese as I might I can't find any examples of this actually having occured. Perhaps Drew is around still?

I'd buy some, but I don't have the cash to be no trail-breaker. Edmooooond!

Hmmm... help a dude out with his Christmas/Birthday/I need more jeans god help me options.

Momotarou Shutsujin Slim Straights:http://www.japanblue.co.jp/denimhouse/item/99.html

Fullcount 1108-15 15th Anniversary Model:

http://www.fullcount.co.jp/onlineshop/679.html

I'm leaning towards the Fullcounts because of the yellow buttons but I figure there's a decent chance they'll be too short for my liking (34 inseam). On the other hand, I'd have to go a long way to try the Momo's on. Also, they're a bit more of a mystery brand at the moment, the pluses and minuses of which even out to neutral in my mind.

SDA and Iron Heart have a reputation for fading slowly. Many of Momotaro's models are famous for not fading at all. So there's stuff out there catering to your madness.

I think I have the same experience, ringring. I wear a quite comfortable 33 waist TH Straight, but usually can rock a 30-31 in a theoretically similar cut elsewhere.

I'll post some pictures if I can find someone to point a camera at me. I was hoping to wait for them to fade more...

Okay, I've decided - my next pair will be Samurai. Death to the beast, long live the rebellion!

Okay, but say I already went to all that work and have a simple, unadorned pair of regular straight selvedge denim that I love to death and are fading nicely. Now addicted, where do I go with my SECOND pair? Do I get a slimmer cut to compliment the slight bagginess of the first? Should I go with black? Or do I want something flashier, with lots of details or some unique point to them? With winter approaching, should I try a heavier weight? Where are my priorities?

I need some experience. I don't want yet to just be breaking in a second pair that differs only slighty from the first. What do the veterans think is the killer combo?

Ah! Someone else admitted an interest in these jeans... I'd buy them but would I ever wear them? Have to keep them in the closet as a guilty conversation piece... anyway http://www.rakuten.co.jp/borubic/285272/ is the only store I can find that stocks them consistently.

Yes, yes. Nickel and diiiime. I like that. "I have a side, nickel and diming premium Japanese denim." Har har har.

Thanks for mentioning Zipangu. I read that thread... very informative.

Please forgive me if I sound naive, but... do people want to buy Japanese jeans at Japanese prices from other people? Is it now so easy to do it yourself from the west that it would be pointless to try? I'm seeing a little frustration but I don't know if it's ENOUGH frustration.

I stumbled onto this forum completely by accident a couple months ago and have become completely obsessed with Japanese denim. I live in Japan, speak the language decently enough, and often go to Osaka and Kobe, where recently I have enjoyed hunting down, staring at, and trying on denim that I can in no way talk myself into affording all at once.

Then in my researches I have discovered the strange fact that is being discussed in this thread: that denim is way waaaaay cheaper here than in America.

Immediately, I think two things:

1) It makes long term economic sense to buy MORE JEANS NOW (I'm sure you guys will be able to see the logic here...)

2) Maybe, MAYBE, I could SELL jeans to BUY jeans. If I sold five jeans at a 20% markup, I could buy ONE JEANS. These maths are compelling to me.

I'm not talking about a proxy service, because I don't want to take orders. I honestly don't want to step on anybody's territory. I don't want to start a big operation. I just want to buy jeans. I want somebody to enable my newest addiction. I want to find jeans, and then sell jeans on eBay (or wherever) so as to have enough profit to buy those jeans without breaking my budget. My question is, would this work? If you saw some 33inch Union Star jeans for sale for $155 on eBay, you pay shipping from Japan, would that be tempting enough for you to think about buying them? Or how about the jeans that have some cautious interest but no rep, like The Steam Locomotive, or those Needleworks Ninja jeans?

I could even gift wrap them with a bow and include a nice little card, sealed with a kiss.

Please, seriously, excuse my rudeness. If there is rudeness.

Thought I'd note in passing that Denim Junkie's latest project, "Horse Riders" will soon be available for reservation. As with the rest of their jeans, these ones are pretty odd. As in, "can it work??" odd. The legs are all, like, bendy.

EDIT: Yeah, okay... so the legs are bendy because that's a horse-riding shape. To prove that you can walk in them, they have a video of a guy doing it. Reinforced with horse leather all over the place. An explosion of insanely obsessive tiny details.

I... may be... dying...

I finally stumbled into the Umeda Aikido store and saw these things for real. My stars and garters, they are pretty. Very soft, smooth material, incredibly vivid color. The model on sale here is what I saw, made especially for the company. Fit me great too!

"What a nice color!" I exlaimed to the snappily-dressed salesdude.

"Yes," he said, and then proceded to BLOW MY MIND! "That's 100% pure, natural indigo. But it will never fade! Never!"

There was a pause as I struggled to work out if I'd understood him.

"Really?" I said, boogling my face up.

"Yes! Not at all!"

"I do not," I said emphatically, "believe you."

He then leapt to produce a most astonishing item from behind the counter... a pair of Momotarou's that he claimed have been worn for SEVEN YEARS. I asked him to confirm this several times, and finally held up fingers just to make sure. Given the incidental wear on the stitching and around the hems, I must believe this to be true. And yet, my friends, NOT A LINE OF FADE. The astonishing indigo, which the website linked to above only gives a pale, ghostly facsimile of, was unchanged!

I'm still trying to work out if this is the greatest thing ever, or slightly silly. I thought fading was half of the point, after all.

I bought a pair of the TH Straights in the Kobe store about 2 weeks ago. They fit me like a dream. I couldn't quite believe it so tried on two or three other cuts (Cisco, Dakota, and the Cactus, I believe) and they were fuggly as hell. I particularly despised the Cisco, which annoyed me because they are so reasonably priced. Gorgeous material. I can't quite get over them.

http://www.anachronorm.jp/

Rather badly designed website... "William H" may enjoy an unwashed model, ANB-033. Hard to tell.

EDIT: Scratch that. Definitely had some work done on it.

Dude, those Locomotive jeans are made in Tajima. That's practically local. Ooh, they have a dealer in Osaka... that's even local-er. Another one for me list.

I love this freakin forum, there's like years of research here.

What appears to be their main site

http://www.momotaroujeans.com/

has been down since I first looked when this thread went up. Oddly, found this other official site

http://www.japanblue.co.jp/momotaro/index.htm

with all the models and whatnot. Confusingly, you need to click on the tiny colored tabs on the righthand side of the page. Bloody flash, thinks it's clever! There are links to measurements...

Okay okay, now you really have me worked up. It looks like 藍着堂 has them in stock at stores in Kobe and Osaka...

http://www.aikidou.com/SHOP/AIKIM-001.html

it just so happens that I will be in Kobe and Osaka, shopping for those Kapitals, maybe swing by an Iron Heart store as well (I'm getting a motorcycle... Iron Hearts look cooler than leathers.) I'll pop in at least to the Kobe store, since I know exactly where it is from the map...

If anyone has a pressing need I can take a camera and have someone take photos of my ass in them. Would that give a better idea of the fit? I'm a noob, I dunno...

Thank you, Drew, that is exactly the help I was looking for. I'm a hardcloth type myself. Kapitals, here I come! I'm going to head down to Kojima later in the summer, I'll see how the Momotaros feel for myself then.

Interesting. This is, as they say, relevent to my interests. Dude over at Indigofan.com went down there and said he wasn't impressed, bought Kapitals instead. I'm fairly sold on getting a pair of Kapitals myself, this weekend, but now you're all futzing up my well-laid plans. Do you know enough to give a comparison of the denim?