Hiroki Nakamura, the founder of cult workwear favorite Visvim, lives the vintage life — carefully curated yet casually scuffed.

If the obsession with American work clothes luxuriously reimagined by the Japanese can be traced to one person, it is Hiroki Nakamura. About 15 years ago, the 44-year-old founder of the cult label Visvim designed a pair of high-rise leather moccasins with rubber sneaker soles, dubbed the FBT, and ever since, his hard-to-find, high-priced shoes and clothing have been coveted by the likes of Eric Clapton and Kanye West — and knocked off by everyone. Inspired by the rugged narrative of the old West, the earthiness of Native American crafts, the simplicity of Zen and the utilitarian beauty of old combat gear, Nakamura, who these days splits his time between a midcentury modern house in the Hollywood Hills and a traditional home outside Tokyo, sticks to a labor-intensive process involving small workshops throughout the world producing items of extraordinary beauty and permanence. Elaborate parkas are rendered in state-of-the-art technical fabric, and rough-textured shirts that mimic hand-loomed garments from the 1880s are dyed in pits in the ground fed by live bacteria. His goal, he says, ‘‘is to create future vintage’’ by eliminating the extraneous and disposable in favor of the enduring and beloved. ‘‘Our focus is the feeling,’’ Nakamura says. And if it all seems to blend together, a graceful tumble of cultures, that’s precisely the point. ‘‘I make what I like, I wear what I like, I do what I like. Just being honest with myself — that’s my aesthetic.’’