Amongst jeans aficionados it’s almost universally agreed that the best Japanese brands now produce this typically American garment to a higher standard than anybody in the US. Japan began sewing up the high-end denim market with the late 1980s rise of the ‘Osaka Five’, a clutch of Kansai-based labels that revived techniques elsewhere abandoned in favour of mass production, and prominent amongst this bunch was Studio d’ Artisan.
Represented in Tokyo by this Ebisu store, the brand was the first in Japan to combine shuttle loom weaving, which creates the fabric’s selvedge (or ‘self-edge’) visible when you roll up the jean cuff, with a process known as ‘hank dyeing’. The process, which takes many days to complete, creates a deeper hue than other methods while retaining the cotton’s natural softness. Studio d’Artisan’s popular SD-101, a straight-legged, regular-fit pair of jeans, sells for ¥26,180.
There’s humour at work amidst all the earnest artisanal workmanship: jeans feature a pair of pigs on the rear patch, with the porcine duo also appearing on tees and sweats. The shop even has a vintage, US-made sewing machine on hand, to give alterations an authentic ‘chain stitch’ that modern machines can’t replicate.