Shortening my A-2 list

I've tightened my A-2 shortlist to a jacket similar to the following:

Buzz Rickson
BR80105

http://www.mil-mil.net/buzz/jacket/br80105/br80105.html
156k yen

The Few
AC29191

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/beatstyle/818847/942413/
160k yen

The Few
AN6-012

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/americaya/an6-012/
168k yen

Real McCoys
MJ6103

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/americaya/mj6103/
158k yen


Toys McCoys
TMJ6603 (B.Rickson)

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/klax-on/tmj6603-051/
184k yen
(A jibe at the their competitors - the Buzz Ricksons brand)


Toys McCoys
V.Hilts

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/beatstyle/818852/833512/
180k yen
(This is a replica of the A-2 worn by Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape")

So I've given up on the idea of a jacket with patches. Preference is for a dark Seal Brown Horse Hide, with the shoulder stencil, and perhaps the name badge.
I am trending towards the Buzz 80105 because it has the Crown Chevron zipper. But I really need to see the leathers and try it on in person before I decide.

Panerai

Favourite wristwatch...


I've had it for 6 years now. One service, and on the second strap.

http://www.panerai.com/
http://www.paneristi.com/

Litigious Levis

For the Japanese denim fans who are angry about the legal proceeding by Levis, here is a quote from the James Sullivan book (page 30):

"In its first year of manufacturing the company [Levi Strauss] sued two
rivals, San Francisco's A. B. Elfelt and San Jose's Kan Lun, for patent
infringement."

So, it's nothing new.

Mario Graffiti

I took these quick pictures of some incredible Mario graffiti near my office.






Unfortunately it only lasted a few months before some idiots pulled some tiles off, and someone else pasted billboards over it.

Oxidation of Indigo (video)

In this cool Russian video you can watch the oxidation of indigo.

In its reduced/liquid state indigo is yellow. As the dipped material is exposed to the air, it oxidizes and you can see it change to the expected indigo blue.

Levis Trademark Gimmicks

Apparently Levis are cracking down on the Japanese denim manufacturers who have been creating jeans with the following features that Levis own the trademark for:

1. Patch with two creatures trying to pull a pair of jeans apart.
2. Sewn arcuate pattern on the back pockets.
3. Label tab sewn under the back pocket.

I don't know all the details. There's a busy thread on superdenim, but it has more hearsay and speculation than facts.

I don't want to write a big rant about Levis' legal action, so my quick thoughts are:

• These three features are GIMMICKS.
• This will be good for the Japanese in the long term. The sooner the Japanese brands get past worshipping the old Levis the better. They've already surpassed the originals.

Japanese Magazines

I was in Sydney for work, and dropped in Kinokuniya to get some magazines.

Lightning Real McCoys Funbook 2007

This is really a high quality catalog of the Real McCoys JP products. There are some Real McCoys Lightning catalogs from previous years.

Free & Easy

This is an old school magazine, I mean, it's a magazine about old stuff. Not antique stuff, but old hardwearing clothes and accessories. Either originals or replicas. There's plenty of pictures of Flight Jackets, Jeans, Leather accessories. This edition has a huge section on Steve McQueen. It goes into crazy detail about the clothes he wore etc.

I find the obsessiveness bizzare, but I also admire it.

Indigo
Also, it appears that the classic book Indigo by Jenny Balfour-Paul has been rereleased on Archetype books.


Amazon Japan Listing of Indigo

Archetype description of Indigo

This is great, I've been wanting to buy the previous edition of this book for a while, but it has been sold out. Now I just need a webstore that ships to Australia.

Replica Flight Jackets

A handful of Japanese manufacturers make incredible replicas of WWII Flight Jackets.

The top manufacturers in Japan are:

The Real McCoys
Toys McCoys
The Few
Buzz Ricksons

I'm considering getting a Flight Jacket during my next trip to Japan. I have a Buzz Ricksons MA-1 (Black), and now I'm thinking of perhaps an A-2, A-1, N-1, L-2, or L-2B. My list is long because these jackets are almost non-existant outside of Japan. So I'm researching the options over the next few months.

One of the first decisions is whether I should get a remake of a specific historical jacket (with patches), or a plain jacket. The patches can be loud and make the jacket look arrogant, but some of them do look cool and the historical aspects are interesting.


Toys McCoys Cotton Tanker Jacket (Phantom Batman) has an interesting back stencil.

It also has blood chit patches on the shoulder, and inside the jacket. Read the wikipedia link about blood chits. It is interesting, and strikes me as a weird situation that the Japanese are remaking these jackets with the text "I am an enemy of the Japanese. "


This remake of a Flying Tigers Jacket has some impressive historical significance. The Flying Tigers had a key role in the conflict with Japan, and they flew the incredible Tomahawk planes painted with the aggressive shark face.

The jacket also includes blood chits.


This Real McCoys "Gentlemen from Hell" jacket is a remake of a jacket from the 487th Bombardment Group. This is my favorite visually, but I don't know if I could really wear it. I also need a telescope to look at the price tag.

NDC Shoes

Well, this is the first non-denim post for indigofan. Shoes.


NDC make some unique designs with interesting washes/treatments. The materials are first rate, and the quality excellent.



The boat shoe has a rather thin sole, but is good for kicking back.



Jhoe is extremely jealous of these suede brogues. They have a fully welted sole (goodyear). They're also now available in brown.

NDC (Nom De Code) Made By Hand

Samurai Geisha GA0510LXX (8 months)

I've worn them almost everyday about 8 months now. Initial soak, and one wash at 6 months. I've got a desk job, so the wear isn't as spectacular as other people get, but I'm pretty happy with them.





The front pocket got a hole from my keys, and some of the stitching came loose. So I made some repairs with denim cloth.





The slubby denim gets some nice variations where the thicker threads standout and fade faster.

Fit

Warehouse 3001XX Close Front Jumper (New)

Apart from liking denim, I also really like half-button shirts and jackets. When I saw pictures of a selvedge denim version from Warehouse, I had to see if I could get one. 3001XX on DStock





It was difficult to research the sizes, measurements, and shipping from Japan. Actually, by the time they were getting the price for shipping I realised that I had gone too far to not buy it.





When the Jacket was being shipped to Australia, I did some more research, and it turns out that there are some very interesting features to this jacket. The cotton is sourced from Memphis in the USA. The main body of fabric is one piece, which flaps over from the back to the front. This means that there are no seams on the shoulders. The cut is also straight - so the with of the body is the with at the shoulders.





The fabric is yellow line selvedge, with a weight of around 11 oz.. Then I found this link to the original jacket that this is a remake of. Levis 211 Close Front Jumper. So the original Jacket was made by Levis in around 1910, and this original version was now on sale for 2 million yen. It explained the strange cut, the 10th Anniversary, and the reason why the cotton was sourced from the USA.





Warehouse are one of the denim companies in Japan which specialise in remaking old garments - especially old Levis. The jacket arrived in a nice box, and came with a Warehouse mook book. The size was as stated. It fits me just right.





When I first saw the unfinished fabric on the inside of the jacket it freaked me out, but I realised that the original Levis jacket must have this finishing. The cut is kindof like the antifit cut of old jeans, but I really like it. And the buttons are in my top 5 list of the greatest buttons ever.





The details and effort that Warehouse have gone through to recreate the original jacket is admirable. I wonder why Levis don't buy a company like this - or at least commission, or license, them to create garments for the LVC brand.

Web Links

• Warehouse & Co.


• Dstock


• Levis 211 Close Front Jumper

Eternal 811 (New)

I had to get these jeans after seeing the images on the Denim Gallery Heavy where the owner has achieved the most incredible contrast fade.

I didn't find Eternal available in the expected stores, and instead I stumbled upon them in the back streets of Kyoto at Loftman. They staff there cut and chainstitched them on the spot.

At 18,690 Yen, these jeans are great value. The fabric is very dark. Hopefully I can achive a fade comparable to the ones on Denim Gallery Heavy.

Web Links

• Denim Gallery Heavy


• Loftman

Samurai Jin+Zero S5110VXJ (New)

This pair of jeans is referred to by many different names. "Jin+Zero", "2005 Victory", "2005 Celebration", "Congratulations 2005".

Jin+Zero is referring to it's style as a combination of two of Samurai's popular models. The Zero Model, and the Jin Blade Model. Celebrate and Victory are referring to a baseball competition. The patch features a cartoon of a samurai and a baseball player partying in Osaka.

Some of the combination of features from the two models are: Zero denim (17oz RH Twill - compared to the Jin LH Twill), Jin cut, Jin back pocket, Jin rivets, Jin pocket cloth, fly is a mix of buttons from both models. The selvage is a gold colour whereas I think the Zero is a silver colour. Stitching is black+yellow.

Impressions

These jeans are awesome. I like almost everything about them. The alternating buttons remind me of the PRPS coloured donut fly. The best thing about this model is that it's cheaper than either of the contributing models. I got my pair from the IN store just inside the start of the Teramachi arcade in Kyoto. At 20,000 yen they are probably the best affordable jean ever. I will comment on the cut of the jeans after I have soaked and worn them for a while. But don't hold your breath waiting for an update because it'll probably be 2007 before I get started.

45rpm Sorahiko (New)

I got these Sorahikos from the 45rpm store in Shibuya. They are one wash. The store staff will measure, cut & chainstitch the hems to your length.

They have some very nice details.

Sugarcane Edo Ai SC40500N (1 month)

The Sugarcane Edo Ai are a 100% Natural Indigo Jean. The colour is not what you expect to see when thinking of indigo. I'm a little colour-blind, but I'd describe it as an aqua. I think the colour is comparable to the Nudie Veggie, but I haven't compared them side-by-side yet. Apparently the makers of these jeans have attempted to not just create natural indigo, but to create the dye using the same process that was used during the Edo era of Japan.

The fabric is a mix of cotton and sugar millet (sorghum). The millet is like a fine straw material. Initially the straw fibres are quite scratchy to wear, but it gets comforatble after a few days.

Throughout these jeans there is no chainstitching. Chainstitching is a classic jeans feature, so I am not certain if this is a good or bad thing, but it does make the jeans very comfortable. The jeans also have a felled inseam.

The inside of the pockets feature some very nice dragon-floral prints, and a dragon on the leather patch. They also come with a hankerchief and a cotton bag that features an asian lion.

Impressions

These jeans are unusual, as you can see from the photos. At the moment, I am undecided on how great they are. The cut is more baggy in the ass and thigh than I am use to. The colour is lighter than I am use to. It will take time, but I'm eager to see how they will look after 6 months of wear and a wash.

Samurai Geisha GA0510LXX (1 month)

Pictures post inital soak, and 1 month of wear.

Yes, these are actually girl's jeans. But it is only the lower rise and pink selvedge line which could be considered feminine. In reality they're more masculine than the Nudie Regular Ralf.

The denim is a coarse 16oz (standard jeans usually max out at 14.5oz).

Impressions

These jeans are incredible. It's great to have such a heavy denim on a jean which doesn't have a dorky vintage cut.

Nudie Regular Ralf Dry Selvedge 2 (1 month)

In one of my greatest shopping finds ever... I bought 2 more pairs of Nudie Regular Ralf selvedge for less than 1/3 of their list price. I've worn these for less than one month, and you can see some slight fading at the edges already.

Impressions

I think that the Nudie Regular Ralf is probably the best jean available in Australia. Apparently we are the only country to have actual Nudie stores (they don't even exist in Sweden)... so hopefully the stores are a big success.
The sanforized denim makes it easier for people to not mess-up their sizing, and they look as good raw as they do once broken in.
The denim is slubby enough, and expands and darkens nicely.

Red Ear Selvedge (New)

These are a very nice pair of jeans from Paul Smith's supposedly Japanese Denim brand Red Ear. The irregular button fly must be the best feature of the jeans.

Most of the Red Ear clothing that I have seen in the past year has not been made in Japan. Instead, it was made in China and other countries. These jeans are not labelled where they were made. So I would assume that it is also "Made in China".

The list price of most Red Ear clothing is very high. They are marketed as if they are made in Japan, but they are not. I'm disappointed in the misleading marketing, and absurd prices which don't reflect the cheaper cost of manufacture.

Well, regardless of all that, these are very nice jeans, but I'm certainly glad that I got them on sale.

Louis Vuitton Selvedge Jacket (New)

In my mind, Louis Vuitton is the greatest luxury brand. Through a combination of fine designs, incredible quality control, and strict distribution - they have created a brand so powerful that people queue to enter their stores, and they never have discounts.

Anyway, I got this denim jacket. Designed by Marc Jacobs. It's broken twill, with some very cool Louis Vuitton Paris selvedge.

It's a great jacket, and fits me perfectly. My one complaint would be that the zip isn't double ended, so I have to unzip to sit down.

Evisu Japan 2000 No.2 (1 month)

At the Evisu Tailor store in Daikanyama the staff are incredibly helpful. They have shelves full of blank jeans. You select the style (2000, 2001 etc.), the size (32, 33 etc), the denim grade (No.1, No.2, No.3 etc), and then you can select what colour and which pockets you want the Evisu seagull painted.

You can even select no gulls. After 2 days you can pick up your jeans with the gulls painted. The denim is nice, and features "Tiger Selvedge" - a yellow line and a black line.

In Japan, you can get denim jeans with red tabs made by companies other than Levis. So, these have an awesome Evisu red tab. These jeans have had less than one month's wear.

Impressions

The Japanese Evisu jeans are much nicer than the China made Evisu that was originally available outside of Japan. I suspect that China has improved their denim techniques in more recent years, the more recent Evisu jeans that I have seen are quite different to previous years.

LVC Japan 1947 501 (12 months)

These are a remake/re-edition of the 1947 Levis 501 - which some believe to be the most classic Levis model. I got these in the Levis Parco store in Shibuya. I've worn them about 8 months.

Sometimes people will refer to old Levis as "Big E" because the red tag on the back pocket features the LEVIS word with a captial "E". This was changed to a lower case "e", LeVIS in the 70s.

The fabric is nice and slubby. The cut is probably a bit too slim (or perhaps I should've sized up) with virtually no slack in the thighs of my skinny legs. I do wonder if the USA made LVC1947s are this slim.

Retrospective Thoughts

I find that the denim of these isn't dense/tight enough. There is a fair amount of stretch to the fabric. Perhaps if I had got a larger size it would've made a difference.

Nudie Regular Ralf Selvedge 1 (18 months)

This is my first pair of Nudies. I got them quite cheap "on sale", but they were probably two sizes too big. I thought I could shrink them down in the dryer, it kind of worked, but smaller jeans would've been much better.

The extra washing, and putting the jeans in the dryer wasn't a serious problem for the jeans. They came out quite well, but after reading some guff about a "transformation wash" by putting them in hotter water - I gave it a go.
Unfortunately they weren't worn out enough, and the wash simply faded the jeans all over. (Note: Don't believe in the transformation wash. Stick to the cold hand wash with vegetable soap... and wait till they're really broken before you wash them.)

They're still okay, but need a lot more wear for the amount of fade. Please learn from my mistakes.

Evisu Int. Lot.0010 (18 months)

These are China Made Evisu. I got these as I was still learning about denim. The back pocket design is quite rare. They also feature no belt loops, and two small waistband straps for tightening.

The denim is quite bland in comparison to what I appreciate now.

The denim and indigo of these jeans is extremely tough. They've had at least 18 months of wear, and have come through quite bulletproof.

Evisu Int. Lot.0002 (20 months)

This was the first pair of premium denim that I ever purchased. I had been with friends, looking at these crazy jeans in Sydney's Swellstore and Superposition. Afterwards I did some research on the web, reading reports about Evisu's founder "Yamane" buying Levi's old antique shuttle looms to make denim the old school way, and the indigo dipping 16 times instead of the normal 8... it kinda flipped me out at the time. After reading this guff... I had to have a pair.

My mind was suddenly opened to traditional denim and shrink-to-fit concepts. However, it also became clear that the Evisu denim available in Australia was not Japanese made, and that there are quite a number of other brands making comparable or better denim.

In the Press

Indigofan is in the press:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/07/LVG18NBRG41.DTL

Woo hoo. My 5 minutes of fame started a two days ago.

The article is a good write up on the denim scene, just a couple of errors about the Levis '66 & '47 501 models.

Wallpapers

Evisu Int. Maniacs Jacket (24 months)

China made jacket. Incredibly hard denim. Loud writing on the back. Gold Buddha buttons.




Light blue selvedge line. 2 years wear.

Setup of the blog

Well I'm finally making the change to a blog. The site was okay as XHTML/CSS, but a pain to update, so I'm converting it to a blog. It will take a while to incorporate the old content, but there will be benefits.

I'll tag/label each pair of jeans so selecting a tag will display a list of posts for that jean. ie. you can view the progressive ageing.

I'm going to broaden the content to other interesting clothing. Hopefully it will enhance the content and not dilute the denim obsessiveness.

Comments will be open, so let me know if you think I'm getting too side-tracked.