Big in Japan
- Lucien Etori

I will be the first to admit my denim collection is not the most outrageous by any stretch. I "only" have about 80 pairs of jeans total. Of those 80, what I like to call my starting rotation numbers about 10, and of those 10 I am most likely to be wearing one specific pair (the ‘quarterback’) 95% of the time and splitting time for the other nine as the occasions warrants.

While I do know more than the average person about denim-- its history, manufacturing process, construction, brands-- and I will turn a prospective new pair of jeans completely inside out and carefully inspect all the seams and stitching, I am NOT a "denim nerd." I will NOT obsess over where specific companies source their cotton or the direction of the cotton weave (right vs. left-hand). I WILL, however, obsess about finding the rarest and most exclusive pair of jeans. And this, of course, means I must look to Japan.

Levi’s inexplicably and inexcusably missed the boat on the premium/vintage jeans market in the early 90s – their current efforts are just plain laughable – even though NOBODY has better credentials and authority. Meanwhile, the Japanese took up the slack and are now -- few will argue against this -- the leaders of the true premium denim market. There are currently at least a couple dozen small to midsize companies that spare no expense in producing the purest, most genuine, most historically accurate pair of jeans around. From utilizing horribly inefficient (by today’s mass production standards) 1950s era shuttle looms, to color-matching threads, I enjoy this attention to detail. I enjoy it very much. True premium denim is completely premised on assiduous attention to detail.

Domestic brands do not abide by such rigorous standards. They don’t have to. Denim consumers will, in large majority, value fit and comfort over historical accuracy and exclusivity. So I took matters into my own hands and flew to Japan over the 2006/07 New Year holidays (or Year 18 in Japan, it’s an Emperor thing), for 12 days of denim buying.

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