Rather than another review, today I’ll show you an older pair of jeans. In fact, this is one of my favourite pairs from the 2000’s. I’ll do a little bit more ranting today too, which is something I haven’t done on this blog for a while now. Please note that the following are not necessarily facts – just some subjective observations and coloured opinions from a Japanese denim hobbyist who’s been at it for a few years. In writing this post, I’ve taken off my hobbyist hat and put on a critic’s cap, so please do excuse the apparent harshness of my words to follow.

Anyway, it struck me recently that it would be a good exercise to contemplate the differences between this Spiral denim jeans from Oni Denim and their current offerings. Given Oni is one of the more forward focused Japanese denim brands, the evolution of their jeans is a good exploration of the recent history of denim.

Of course, the golden years of denim are long past – these good old days are considered by many to be the period between early to mid-20th century, dominated by modern day jeans behemoths such as Levi’s, Lee, Wrangler, etc. Yet, the beginnings of our current hobby can be perhaps directly traced to Japanese obsessions about Americana and denim from the post-war period, with the reproduction craze in full swing by the 1990’s.

What hasn’t really been explored yet, however, is how hobbyist denim has evolved outside of Japan since that time. Of course, many people wear denim, and the market dominance by the Big 3 really hasn’t changed all that much. High end fashion houses have also adopted our favourite indigo fabric of course, but skin hugging, pre-distressed jeans are of no interest to me – I suspect this is true for you too, if you are reading this blog.

It’s a little known fact that Japanese denim was first ‘introduced’ to the Western market by former cool-kids who were all about streetwear. Most of these guys really had little real interest in work styling or reproduction garments, but I think the niche appeal of ‘Japanese selvedge raw denim’ at the time collided perfectly with the fashionable people who are on a constant look-out for styles and aesthetics that allow them to stand out from the crowd. The fascination with denim, for those early trail-blazers, rarely lasted more than a couple of seasons… and yet, it is thanks to them that most of today’s Western hobbyists had their first introduction to Japanese jeans, via the Internet.

As a side note, for me personally, I was all about distressed jeans and sneakers as a teenager, and was only introduced to Japanese denim via Edwin’s Blue Trip label jeans as I sought to revamp my wardrobe in time for moving out of home and commencing tertiary studies. This coincided with the beginnings of the Superdenim forum on Superfuture, the very earliest days of people taking photos of what they were wearing and sharing it with other weird men on the internet.

Unlike the Japanese, for whom even Americana represents a type of cultural uniform that is bound to conform to group think and serve as almost a clan-based identifier, most Western adoptions of this originally Japanese hobby were much more relaxed and selective in approach. Such is the difference between collectivist and individualist social norms, I suppose.

I think it is interesting to consider that, after World War II, the intense Japanese interest in Americana can perhaps be seen as a rebellion against collectivist thinking – something that played a huge part in the scary Japanese psychology during the terrible war – but against these youthful intentions Americana and motorcycle culture became another insular community. Indeed, you are not so Free and Easy if you must consult a magazine to figure out the way you should dress? Or if your friends all wear the same thing, and you feel compelled to monitor your own style less you break the community dress code? It is interesting to examine how the Japanese adopted and perfected their own brand of Americana… certain parallels to Japanophilia in people who have never experienced homegrown Japanese culture and upbringing I think, though not only are we crossing cultures, but also time!

Weirdly, it is this mutated Japanese version of Americana that I’m fascinated with. I’m not a huge fan of LVC or strict reproduction, and my favourite garments are actually those which combine vintage American work style with modern Asian influences. Therefore, the jeans you most commonly see on this blog are from brands like Oni, Tanuki, Samurai, etc.

The reintroduction of Americana jeans making back to the Western market has not been a complete sync, of course. The result is that most Western consumers (and even younger Japanese consumers) are only ever really interested in smaller bits and pieces of work-wear and Americana styling. The biggest market up until recently has been America, and it’s been curious to see how the Japanese, through American middle-men, have sold Americana back to Americans. Inevitably then, Japanese reproduction denim was slowly absorbed and, in many ways, diluted to fit Western needs as more and more Japanese brands sought inroads into Western markets as the Japanese economy became stale over the past two decades.

What will be more interesting is the rise of the Chinese economy and the continued modernisation of Japan’s Asian neighbours; the picture of how these markets will influence Japanese craft denim is slowly beginning to form, as American soft power continues to decline and worldwide interest in Americana, old or new, begins to wane.

For better or worse, over the past decade, it is clear that the Japanese jeans makers are mostly conforming to Western approaches to ‘heritage’ menswear, influenced over time by their Western retailers, who in turn have to meet their consumers’ needs in order to survive. Artisan jeans making is slow fashion to be sure, but it does – it has to – move with the times. So it is that the Japanese denim that we are wearing at this time actually looks rather different compared to what was being hyped when the cool kids first ‘discovered’ it in Tokyo a decade ago.

I think Oni Denim, as a brand, is a great study into some of what I just ranted about. You might like to compare to details in the photos here with my recent reviews of Oni’s Shin Secret denim and Aizumi denim.

The first talking point is actually the name of the brand! Did you know Oni denim was, at first, called B.S. United (Big Stone = Oishi, the founder), later changing to O.N.International, and now simply Oni Denim. A bit of Western input here didn’t hurt, haha.

Oni’s jeans used to come in only two fits: Red and Blue. The Red was the wide cut, which is really wide by current standards. The Blue was the stove-pipe straight cut, which is still wide, just not ridiculously so. These older cuts were proper mid-century fits.

Of course, as much as reproduction enthusiasts would stand by mid-century fits, most of us are not built like our ancestors and subjectively these cuts are not appealing to the vast majority of people. For most of us, rocking LVCs and Resolute jeans might be a whole lot of mental fun but most people who see us in these jeans probably wouldn’t see the appeal. So it is that the majority of consumers demanded more modern fits, this feedback being passed on to the Japanese makers, and you’ll have noticed that they are now focusing on newer cuts all around. Take the spectacular popularity of various tapered cuts in particular, and the extinction of wide cuts and boot cuts from the catalogue.

This particular pair is a Blue fit, but it has been tapered by Antony at Ant Hill Workshop, so I can’t show you the original cut, but trust me in that these were wider than anything you might find at Denimio, Corlection, Pronto, or Okayama Denim. As you can see in the photo above, the Blue cut jeans always had a painted blue button! It is interesting to think back to my start in this hobby, when I wore pretty much only stove-pipe cuts, and compare that with my recent additions over the last two years which are pretty much all tapered!

In terms of overall aesthetics, the general vibe if you will, this old pair of Spiral denim certainly has much more of a reproduction feel in its detailing and construct.

Oni’s patch has been through many designs. Overtime, the Japanese brands have become more minimalist in their patch graphics. The same trend can be observed for arcuate designs, although the Levi’s lawsuit a few years back played a major role too. In terms of patch and arc designs, these were actually the two main aspects I didn’t like about Oni’s jeans, and its been good to see that they’ve been updated in the past few years. I’m still not a huge fan of their arcs, but then again I’m not a fan of most Japanese arcs. In general the Japanese do minimalism really well, but I think with arc designs there are probably a few things lost in translation, in a way that I don’t really understand the aesthetics even as someone with an East Asian background.

Another aspect of Western influence over the past few years has been hardware. Japanese jeans makers have always used mostly plain but very high quality buttons and rivets. Yet, quality of hardware is something that is difficult for most people to appreciate, so more often than not Western consumers will equate customised hardware with good quality. So, you will observe how these old Oni jeans had relatively plain but very solid buttons and rivets, whereas my two newest pairs all feature customised hardware. The same trend can be seen in Tanuki’s jeans too, despite their very short brand history – with every new jeans release, the buttons and rivets become progressively more customised. Which is a good approach because their jeans have better appeal to consumers as a result: Hardware is not an aspect of jeans that other people will notice while the jeans are being worn, but they make great selling points to people who casually stroll into a denim store.

As the reproduction denim trend inside and outside of Japan comes to a grinding halt, the way the Japanese are making jeans is also slowly changing. Apart from one-man workshops run by guys with almost psychotic dedication and bigger operations where money is not a consideration and making clothes is a hobby (Real Japan Blues, etc), the vast majority of denim makers are moving towards more modern, streamlined sewing with polyester threads. Case in point being the pair we’re looking at right now – compare the sewing and all-cotton thread selection here with the newest Oni jeans. Check out that tonal middle stitch! Or that beefcake waist band chain-stitch!

In generally, most makers are moving towards fewer colours, fewer thread sizes and less variations in stitch density and types – this is, objectively, not necessarily a bad thing, it just does mean that vintage style sewing is being phased out slowly, as most consumers simply don’t care about this aspect of their clothing. (Yeah, I know, you and I both care, but we’re probably one in ten thousand.)

This denim is really interesting too, and if you’ve been in the hobby long enough you might remember this Spiral denim as a snapshot of what was considered cool in the late 2000’s. (Big slub denim is, in fact, a rather recent innovation, perfected by the Japanese mills only in the 1980’s.) The fabric geeks at the time took a real liking towards denim which featured heaps of verticality and big slubs! This Spiral denim is a grandfather of the newest types of big slub denims such as Tanuki’s Z denim, which is a little bit more variegated outside of the massive slubbing.

The pocket cloth too, is an fun reminder that there used to be a time where shirting flannels were really popular as fabrics for front pockets, instead of the usual twills and canvas cloths which are a bit more rigid and smooth.

Other aspects of detailing are similar to more modern offerings, although I do suspect that we continue to see raised belt loops and hidden rivets because they are often discussed on hobby forums and they present as much more obvious, visual selling points in terms of street traffic for brick-&-mortar denim stores.

Finally, I do want to give blog friend Anthony of Ant Hill Workshops a quick plug. His tapering and chain-stitch hemming are often neater than factory condition! I’d highly recommend my fellow Australian hobbyists to contact Anthony if you have any denim work needing done, whether they be repairs or custom embroidery requests. Check out the hem he sew on this Spiral denim.

Ultimately, I personally feel that even if aspects of our denim hobby are slowly being diluted, the pay off in terms of being able to introduce more people to artisan jeans is well worth the gradual adjustments. It’s always difficult to sell hobby items to weird, obsessive guys like myself…and to be honest, no matter what the jeans makers do, over time we’ll always find things to complain about. All is not lost for strict vintage-style and reproduction enthusiasts, however, because if you’re willing to spend a little bit of money, guys like CSF or Roy Slaper will still have you covered if you want to travel back in time with your pants. Some bigger brands, such as mainline Sugar Cane jeans, have not changed all that much either. There are also really dedicated guys such as Bela at Hepville, who practice the art of bespoke work-wear tailoring (I know, the contradictions there are puzzling to consider sometimes), just in case you want a 19th-century inspired sack coat done in a hand-dyed, hand-loomed fabric. I’ll show you my sack coat some other time.

In terms of ongoing market share too, brands like Oni and the various Japane Blue Group labels have to compete with Western outfits such as RgT and Railcar, etc. The implications here regarding styling and price point are additional points to consider. Further, just like many other industries, our favourite jeans makers are trying to make inroads into big Asian markets like China, and competing with the local brands there, trying to adapt to unique demands of very different types of consumers, who often have love/hate relationships with the Japanese due to what happened during WWII. How this will play out in the next decade is harder to say. Currently, the big stakeholders in these frontier Asian Pacific markets, such as Corlection, are going further down the route of using the Japanese brands as middle men to manufacture garments that are specific for their client base – an approach that is being nicely executed by guys like The Rite Stuff & John Lofgren but perhaps is unintentionally hostile towards Japanese makers who are guarded about their brand identity and story, in that they no longer have majority input in terms of the garments they make and the aesthetics they wish to cultivate. This approach is likely to result in faster and regionally specific shifts in Americana style compared to the slow drift of the past ten years. Niche makers such as At Last & Co. and its brother brands which stand against this globalisation of Japanese Americana will likely forever remain niche and largely irrelevant outside of select circles in Japan.

Anyway, just some thoughts to share with you, and a story to tell alongside of some pretty denim photos. No offence to any of the brands or stores mentioned here of course – none of the points I’m trying to make were intended as criticism. Just some observations as a long time Japanese denim enthusiast regarding inevitable changes in the hobby over the past few years. You’ll likely hear some very different thoughts from people in the industry.

That’s it for today. Come back in a little bit when I’ll have a very special wallet to show you. Mike here, signing off for a couple of weeks.