[Covet]: Japanese Denim
By Morgan Short, Aug 24th, 2010 | In Shopping
"Covet" is a celebration of the mass accumulation of commodities. Basically, it's just seeing purchase-worthy stuff around Shanghai and sometimes purchasing it.
Item: Japanese Denim Jeans
Store: Take 5
Price: 1024rmb to 2600rmb (approx. -- 20% off sale is ongoing)
One of the nice things about living in Shanghai is the cultural, commercial, and physical proximity of this city to Japan, so that sometimes we get to benefit from that county’s collective obsessive compulsive disorder with things like high quality seafood, drinks, comics, and clothes. Sometimes they export it. Amongst the myriad of ways Japansanity finds expression in the world is denim jeans -- vintage, hand-stitched, hand-painted, hand-dyed, hand-washed, detailed denim jeans.
This past July, Take 5, opened their first shop in the Mainland China on Julu Lu. They stock a wide range of brands and styles of superfine Japanese denim -- the best money can buy.
There's a fairly involved back story to the rise in global notoriety of Japanese jeans. Long story short, about 20 years ago this guy called Hidehiko Yamane started this jeans company called Evisu. As a reaction to the mass-production, assembly line techniques of American manufacturers, he (and a few others) went the opposite direction with their product, adopting old-timey weaving and dying methods to produce rich, rich, detail-obsessed denim jeans which are these days coveted like fine wines. In Japan today, there are several boutique companies that specialize in these super high quality denim jeans that are world renowned as the best jeans you can get. It all gets quite involved. If you want to read more about the ins and outs of it and the specific production techniques of Japanese denim, check out this article on AskMen.com.
So this store, Take 5. With branches in Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok, and now Shanghai, Take 5 is part denim retail and part denim culture emporium -- memorabilia and even a signed jeans jacket from Yamane adorn the walls.
The brands they stock are thus: Samurai, Studio d'Artisan, Momotoro, Iron Heart, Sugar Cane (made of denim and sugar cane), Pure Blue, Flat Head, R.J. Blues, and more. Product is predominately for men in all styles: slim fit, tight, loose, boot cut, and so on. Yeah, this is predominantly a men's jeans store, although they have a few options for women (cheaper too -- 880rmb or so).
Prices are 1,024rmb to around 2,600rmb or so -- they have a 20% off sale going on so that's knocked the price down a bit.
It's definitely not cheap. But it's the best quality in the world, so there you have it. The store, which is a quite small boutique, feels like an apothecary. As you peruse the stock a clerk will explain to you why "this one is so special" and talk to you about the intricacies of the stitching, the dying, the fabled "selvage edge" and stuff. It's like buying jewelery or a car.
Sizes are 27 to 36, and they have a special 42.
Japanese jeans! Good stuff. Only a couple thou! Buy! Buy! Buy! Consume! This could be your new thing.
Here is the store's website and here is the address information.
Hassle free ticket purchasing and delivery for Shanghai's cultural and concert events:
robjamdj, Aug 24th, 2010
A tip.... If you aint got the cash to splash whilst at the same time having a wicked holiday break, try buying a 2800rmb return ticket to Bangkok. Take a weekend trip to the fantastic JJ market (a.k.a. chatuchat) at the end of the sky-train line. 400-800 Baht 2nd hand jeans as well as old worn clothes & trainers are some of the best/most authentic in Asia and certainly the cheapest! Ive got me 5 pairs! - Levi's, Edwin, Wranglers, Lee...meanwhile for those too lazy there is always Take 5 & rarer finds - those faded lines on them jeans hanging on the wall in the last picture look the deal...the kinda stuff thats right up my alley... Question: Why dont the Chinese like to buy 2nd hand clothes. Im told by Chinese friends its cos they are worried about the 'chi' of someone having died in the item of clothing? Its a pity as 2nd hand is history & history is memories...ive seen some awesome worn jeans on some of those 50 year old shanghainese double-denim wearing rocker types!Nstyle, Aug 24th, 2010
Actually thai-jeans have beautiful fading but bad quality.So i 'd like to buy a brand new unwashed jeans and "feed" it myself!morgan, Aug 24th, 2010
Forgot to stick it in above but one of the main aspects of these bad boys is the all-natural indigo dye coloring process. They dip the jeans in vats of dye, so the color is on the outside of the pants. This allows the jeans to fade naturally over time -- apparently, two years is the sweet spot.In the fourth picture down, the jeans on the wall are set up like a display of this aging/fading process... the folded up pair is the original and the unfolded pair is what they look like after two years.
I don't know why I find all this so fascinating but I'm not going to fight it.
Zammo, Aug 25th, 2010
i miss APC jeans. you could wear them for two years and they'd look better and better until one day they just exploded with dirt and wear. in the end they could almost stand up on their own. hells angels puke and piss on a new member's jeans as an initiation / honor thing. i don't know why i find this fascinating. i should probably fight it.robjamdj, Aug 25th, 2010
Thai kids taught me 'never wash ur jeans'. Doesnt help with the missus though...mrjaymark, Aug 25th, 2010
Most of these jeans aren't dyed with 'all- natural' indigo- they use synthetic indigo, like the majority of jeans.Indigo- dyed jeans fade great if you don't wash them because indigo is a non- water soluble dye that can be 'rubbed off' from the friction and abrasion of wear and tear.
There are a bunch of reasons premium Japanese jeans are expensive: they use ring- spun cotton that's extra strong, they dip the cotton an unreasonable number of times in indigo for a very deep blue, they use python skin and virgin blood and such for detailing, etc.
But if you dig the 'wear in and fade your jeans' mystical process of amazingness, it's not exclusive to premium jeans. A pair of unwashed Uniqlo jeans will do you fine, so long as you space out washes and don't put your jeans in the dryer.
That being said a pair fo Eternal 811's, when worn in properly, will allow you to summon down the power of your spirit animal and regrow limbs.
rob.r, Aug 25th, 2010
@mrjaymakr - shhhhhh! Don't talk about the Uniqlo unwashed!Shaboom, Aug 25th, 2010
Two of my favourite things in the world are my original pair of Evis (as they were called back then) and my original pair of Gap Star. Both hardly ever get washed, washing the Evis too often would be certain death anyway as the logos are all handpainted in what looks suspiciously like children's poster paint.robjamdj, Sep 26th, 2010
Finally got to Take 5 this week and bought me a nice pair of Deep Blues. Stiff as hell, causing some abrasion but it will all be worth it in the end. Cycled home yesterday in them and it started to rain heavily so that 6 month wait for the first wash was somewhat brought forward! F$&@*!Anyway, the shop assistants were great and im now looking forward to sending my Wrangler broken twills for a proper mend in their HK store. Finally i can leave them to be fixed by somone who cares. P{ay the shop a visit, its a serious eye opener on what the best of the best should be...Please sign in or register to comment