A 5-min download of the history of Japanese streetwear
One book and dozens of articles later, I wanted to share my notes on how Japanese fashion has evolved to this day
Some would say it all started with Hiroshi Fujiwara, AKA the Godfather of Streetwear. Fujiwara did a lot — he grew up idolizing Vivienne Westwood, had his own hip-hop unit called Tinnie Panx, co-founded Japan’s first hip-hop label Major Force, effortlessly made connections from London to NYC, started a column called Last Orgy in a subcultural magazine to write about (what is now known as) streetwear, became the first Japanese member in the International Stüssy Tribe, and was a genius at the art of curation.
Tomoaki Nagao, a hardcore disciple of Last Orgy, went to Bunka Fashion College in hopes of being a media guru like Fujiwara, and met aspiring designer Jun “Jonio” Takahashi there. Since Tomaoki looked a bit like Fujiwara, he was immediately nicknamed Nigo (“Number Two”).
In 1990, Fujiwara, together with Shinichiro “Sk8thing” Nakamura, launched Japan’s first streetwear brand: Goodenough. It borrowed from Stüssy’s model, which meant that it sold high-quality T-shirts and sportswear screen-printed with graphic designs in limited releases. Goodenough launched at the beginning of streetwear, around the same time as American pioneers FUCT and SSUR and X-Large.
In 1993, Fujiwara opened Nowhere with Nigo and Jun in a quiet, non-commercial part of Harajuku called Ura-Harajuku (translated: “back of Harajuku”). Nowhere was split into two — Takahashi sold his own brand Undercover on one side and Nigo imported American clothes on the other side. But the imported clothing didn’t take off and Nigo soon realized that he had to create an original brand. Together with Sk8thing, he launched A Bathing Ape. While Nigo led the label, Sk8thing was the head designer and came up with most of the graphic designs, including the ape logo after binge-watching five hours of the Planet of the Apes films together. Also in 1993, Fujiwara opened the shop Ready Made in Harajuku that exclusively focused on collaborations, which he closed down in 1999 and then opened Fragment Design, which doesn’t produce anything but acts like a consulting design firm for collaborations with other people (from Pokémon to LV).
In 1994, Fujiwara launched Last Orgy 3 with Nigo and Takahashi and promoted their own brands. Their friends also began creating their own lines — Shinsuke Takizawa (who worked with Fujiwara at Major Force) started Neighborhood in 1994 and Hikaru Iwanaga (Takahashi’s former bandmate) opened Bounty Hunter in 1995. Takizawa launched Neighborhood with Tetsu Nishiyama, who later founded WTAPS — like most Japanese brands formed in the 80–90s, Neighborhood started out by importing clothes from the US but eventually moved into screen-printing their own graphics when the US deadstock did not sell. The brand’s designs are now inspired by biker culture and motorcycles. Bounty Hunter initially began as a punk-rock toy store that imported American toys, especially Star Wars memorabilia (the name Bounty Hunter is actually a reference to Boba Fett), before transitioning into punk rock inspired clothes with biker motifs. Neighborhood and Bounty Hunter took elements of American military, biker, punk, & rock-n-roll culture and created blacked-out skull-adorned brands.
Also in 1994, Fujiwara and Takahashi launched a label together called A.F.F.A. (Anarchy Forever Forever Anarchy), referencing 1970s punk music and taking inspiration from the legendary partnership of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren. This label never reached mainstream popularity but was nonetheless impactful on the history of streetwear: 1) it showcased Jun Takahashi’s design style of punk-inspired graphic prints and typography over military garments, and 2) it proved that Fujiwara’s strategy of limited drops was successful in making the label more coveted and exclusive.
In 1997, Tetsu “Tet” Nishiyama founded WTAPS, a guerilla military-influenced streetwear label — the collections are often accompanied by Tetsu’s personal philosophies in the form of short essays or poems. Tet had been friends with Takizawa since high school. Tet Nishiyama’s other label, Forty Percent Against Rights, features anarchist slogans printed on simple garments. The label’s name was coined by Sk8thing based on a concept that he heard — that if an original artwork was modified by at least 40 percent, “the rights to that particular artwork don’t exist anymore”.
In 2005, Nigo helped Pharrell Williams find his clothing line Billionaire Boys Club with Sk8thing designing the initial releases (and the astronaut logo), as well as designing for Williams’s shoe line ICECREAM. By aligning Bape with the music world and hip-hop artists, Nigo pushed Bape into being one of the most iconic and hyped brands globally, reaching a peak in the mid-2000s before crashing. In 2011, Bape was sold to Hong Kong retailer I.T. Ltd. for barely more than $2mn (for a company that generated $60mn in revenues) due to large amounts of debt that the company had accrued from bad investments such as Bape Café and Bape Cuts. The fall of Bape, coupled with the modernization of retail through e-commerce and savvy young shoppers making information more transparent through blogs such as Hypebeast and Highsnobiety, started changing up the streetwear scene. Some would say that this marked the end of the Ura-Harajuku era. Nigo launched Human Made in 2010 to help him create the things that he couldn’t create under Bape — Human Made is inspired by 1950s Americana as well as references to Nigo’s Tokyo diner Curry Up.
By contrast, Fujiwara was more lowkey and did not allow Goodenough to grow too big — a decade after its launch, Fujiwara left his own brand. Similarly, Neighborhood and WTAPS focused on growing a slow and steady business making high-quality products for a devoted customer base. WTAPS only opened its first and only flagship store in 2011, named GIP-Store (Guerilla The Incubation Period).
In 2001, Hiroki Nakamura created the brand visvim, which initially started as a footwear brand and quickly gained popularity with its signature moccasin / sneaker hybrid called the FBT. Visvim started making clothing in 2005 and is inspired by “future vintage” — taking traditional techniques used by indigenous groups, such as mud-dyeing or other traditional dyeing methods, and combining it with technological innovations such as Gore-Tex.
In 2012, Sk8thing and Toby Feltwell, who worked together for Bape and Billionaire Boys Club, decided to start their own label called Cav Empt, inspired by the latin phrase caveat emptor, or buyer beware. The graphics reference early internet culture and tech hardware, while incorporating philosophical quotes condemning consumerism. Sk8thing was the designer, while Feltwell oversaw the business and product design.
From 1990 to 2011 marks the period of the Urahara movement — from the establishment of Nowhere to the sale of Bape to I.T. This movement emphasized strong storytelling as part of the brand heritage as well as subcultural references, most often punk rock related, screen printed on tees and hoodies and accompanied by military-inspired outerwear and other technical garments.
But when did the (modern) Japanese fashion craze actually begin? Some would argue in the 1960s through a man named Kensuke Ishizu — otherwise known as the Godfather of Japanese prep, as proclaimed by Grailed. Kensuke Ishizu was the founder of the fashion brand VAN and a major contributor to Japan’s first men’s fashion magazine Otoko no Fukushoku (later branded as Men’s Club), which he conveniently used to write editorials promoting his own clothes.
IVY IN JAPAN (1960S)
In 1959, Ishizu traveled to America and noticed the “Ivy League” look on the Princeton campus and came up with the idea to sell Ivy League-style clothing (called “aibii”) through his company VAN, meticulously making a detailed copy of the Books Brothers’ Number One Sack Suit.
Around the same time, two students in Tokyo were busy researching and analyzing exactly what made an outfit “Ivy”. Toshiyuki Kurosu and Kazuo Hozumi met each other at a fashion illustration seminar after seeing the Ivy look in Men’s Club and becoming instantly obsessed — they later on formed a “Traditional Ivy Leaguers Club” and dedicated all their time in picking apart and perfecting all aspects of an Ivy outfit, right down to the tiniest technical detail. Eventually, they both ended up writing for Men’s Club, where Kurosu met Shosuke Ishizu, the son of Kensuke Ishizu. When Kensuke Ishizu made Shosuke in charge of producing the Ivy line for VAN, Shosuke decided to tap the brains of Kurosu, who had since then become Japan’s resident expert on the Ivy style.
In the 1960s, interest in men’s fashion was considered “feminine” or perverted in Japan. But by implementing a rulebook of do’s and don’ts to dictate the style of Ivy — thereby almost making it into a technical sport, which appealed to men — coupled with the release of the now iconic book Take Ivy, which served as a visual guide of real people donning the Ivy look on the streets (perhaps one of the first examples of streetwear), as well as proliferation of the magazine Heibon Punch which brought men’s fashion to the masses, Ivy became the most popular style amongst the Japanese youth by 1964.
This culminated in the notorious Miyuki Tribe of teens that hung around Ginza all day, frightening parents and alerting cops and officially making VAN “cool”. During the 1964 Summer Olympics, Kensuke Ishizu noticed the sneakers on the athletes and decided to make knock-off high-top Converse All-Stars but with the VAN logo in the circle on the ankle instead, calling them “SNEEKERS”. Sneakers had been considered only suitable for students in the gym prior to the proliferation of the VAN SNEEKERS. These were a hit in 1965, along with the t-shirt in 1966, which, prior to that, had always been considered an undergarment in Japan.
Ishizu was adept at designing and marketing but ultimately some would say that what he did was “cultural arbitrage” — he copied styles in America that had yet to reach Japan. The dissection, modification, and importation of American style into Japan in a vehicle suitable for Japanese male youth consumption was ultimately what made Ishizu a genius.
JEANS REVOLUTION (1960S)
The city of Kojima, which sits at the bottom of Okayama Prefecture, is now known as Japan’s denim mecca. Back in 1964, however, it housed the city’s top uniform maker, Maruo Clothing (rebranded later as Big John), which, in an attempt to save the company, had decided to foray into G.I. pants — otherwise known as blue jeans. Maruo used denim fabric sourced from American mills and gave them a single wash to soften the material and fade the color, which the Japanese preferred compared to the stiff material of American brands Lee and Levi’s. The success of VAN inspired Maruo to target the youth directly and pretty soon jeans became the “it” clothing of rebellious subcultures.
In 1960, the largest counterculture was the Marxist student movement. The political cultural revolt directly aided the jeans market — Shinjuku housed teens on the fringes of society, with the two major groups being the futen-zoku (think homeless youth vagabonds on prescription pills) and the hippie-zoku(think American rock, bohemianism, and communal farms). The Shinjuku youth movement shifted Japanese style from Ivy’s button downs and chinos, which used to clothe delinquents but had come to represent mainstream fashion, to a shaggy hippie style styled with jeans.
When the political tensions died down, out came a more moderate Sixties aesthetic: dressed-down, down to earth, back to basics — where jeans also proliferated. Japanese denim companies adopted American-sounding names, such as Big John, Edwin, Bobson, and John Bull.
OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FASHION (1970S)
In 1975, the magazine-catalog Made in USA hit the stands and became an immediate bestseller. It was a catalog of high-end American goods for men and featured clothing brands such as Levi’s, Red Wing, J. Press, Pendleton, L. L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, and The North Face. It quickly became a style guide and the Japanese youth was enamored with the rugged, traditional American look and functional outdoor gear — this rustic “back-to-nature” Americana became categorized as “heavy-duty” and was compared to the cleaner, more polished style of Ivy. The “Heavy Duty Ivy Party Manifesto” featured down vests (which was previously entirely unknown in Japan!!), hiking boots, and 60/40 parkas.
In 1976, the magazine Popeye (“Magazine for City Boys”) debuted with most of the staff pulled directly from the Made in USA team. However, the aesthetic for Popeye took on a different set of outdoor activities — instead of hiking, Popeye featured West Coast youth (particularly UCLA students) in southern California skateboarding, roller-skating, surfing, and playing frisbee.
Popeye, just like Made in USA, made outdoor activities fashionable, brought about a sports boom in Japan with skateboarding and surfing, and revitalized the popularity of American brands.
Masayuki Yamazaki founded Cream Soda in 1982 in his art deco retail space called Pink Dragon located between the shopping districts Harajuku and Shibuya. Cream Soda was a fifties-inspired brand that sourced vintage clothes from America and capitalized on the retro rock’n’roll hype, leaving every teen looking like they belonged on American Graffiti. Soon after, Yamazaki opened up a new store, Garage Paradise, and these two stores transformed Harajuku from a quiet residential neighborhood into the center of pop culture and youth fashion.
By the 1970s, a subculture known as yankii (referencing yankee G.I.s) had emerged that took cues from fearless rebels and delinquents from 1950s America. The yankii look was the product of many years of evolution from the 1950s from un-tucked Hawaiian shirts, General MacArther-style aviator sunglasses, and a regent hairstyle. This developed into a working-class fashion movement called sukaman, who had an affinity for the souvenir jacket. The sukaman were heavily inspired by the Japanese rock band Carol and the lead singer Eikichi Yazawa, who sported a pompadour, wore black leather jackets and leather pants, and posed with motorcycles.
Eventually a more dangerous juvenile delinquent developed, called the bosozuku — basically teenage biker gangs notorious for turf wars, loud group riding, and a fashion style based off of American greasers but actually ripped off directly from Eikichi Yazawa. The bosozuku terrorized Shinjuku but was eventually warded off by the police by 1970, and so they relocated to the then-quiet residential area of Harajuku, a short walk away from the busy commuter hub Shibuya. The bosozuku were branded “rollers” by the media due to their affinity to dance to rock’n’roll music — the twist and jitterbug. But still, most rollers were tsuppari, which was colloquial for delinquent teens. The tsuppari look started to fade in the mid-1980s and was nearly extinct by the end of the decade.
Masayuki Yamazaki is credited for being an influential fashion entrepreneur by turning Harajuku into a huge fashion neighborhood and starting the fifties craze — however, similar to Kensuke Ishizu, critics argue that the Japanese fifties boom added nothing new to vintage rock canon as Yamazaki simply copied American historical references over to Japan.
1976 to 1991 was a gilded age for Japan, with the yen appreciating in value against the dollar and the government allowing travelers to take more money out of Japan when traveling. Japanese tourists started to buy French and Italian luxury brands when traveling overseas, and thus began an influx of European luxury goods.
The 1970s focused the narrative back on imported foreign clothes. Osamu Shigematsu and Etsuzo Shitara opened up the shop American Life Shop Beams (now known as BEAMS) in 1976, importing a variety of American goods never before seen in Japan, including Nike sneakers. Rival Miura & Sons set up a similar shop in Ginza called Ships. In 1989, Shigematsu and some other former BEAMS employees broke away to launch United Arrows — where you can buy stylish designer clothes (for example, UA holds the license for Chrome Hearts in Japan) as well as “ideas for more stylish living”, with style icon Yasuto Kamoshita as creative director.
In 1979, there was an Ivy revival but in a more contemporary form — called “preppie”. Hot Dog Press magazine sprung up as a copycat of Popeye but targeted high schoolers instead of college students. This was a pivotal moment for Japan because the prep fashion craze was going on at the same time in the US — it marked the start of Tokyo experiencing global trends in real time.
1980S BUBBLE
At the time when Japanese youth began growing bored of the laid-back style of American prep, more avant-garde designers were coming up: Rei Kawakubo of CDG and Yohji Yamamoto made their debut in Paris in 1981, along with predecessors Issey Miyake and Kenzo Takada. By 1983, devoted followers of Kawakubo and Yamamoto (all dressed in long, black garments) became known as the Crow Tribe. By 1985, the era known as the DC Boom (“Designer and Character brands”) was in full bloom, starting in womenswear and eventually spreading over to menswear. The two leading brands, Comme des Garcons and Y’s, rejected traditional silhouettes and fabrics, and by the mid-1980s, people viewed Tokyo’s fashion scene as exceeding the sophistication of the US’s. For most of 1980s, shops like BEAMS, United Arrows, and Ships dominated the retail scene, importing and curating a selection of American brands.
The second half of the 1980s became known as the Bubble Era where the nation collectively went on a shopping spree (Onward Kashiyama bought J. Press!). However, the old-money wealthy youth wanted to distance themselves from the new-money youth funding the DC Boom and started dressing in amekaji (American casual) with Levi’s and Nike — a looser and sportier version of the preppy — to exude the moneyed ambiance that only comes with old-money wealth. By 1988, amekaji had morphed into shibukaji (Shibuya casual) and comprised of polo shirts, zip-up hoodies, down vests, rolled-up Levi’s 501, moccasins, and ethnic-looking silver necklaces. Shibukaji rose as the DC Boom waned and became the hottest style in Japan, decimating the entire economy of Harajuku as it sapped any and all desire to wear expensive designer brands. By the 1990s, both the DC Boom and shibukaji had vanished.
Source: Ametora by W. David Marx
