#van jacket

Read. Read books. Read a book. Read this Book called Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style.

Photo Cred: GenteelFlair.com

Marx documents Japan's complex relationship with American, and more generally, Western fashion. It’s an  account that will consume the menswear-obsessed and even hold the interest of the marginally interested.

Marx spans the decades since WWII recounting the origin stories of Japanese fashion icons the likes of VAN Jacket Founder, Kensuke Ishizu, A Bathing Ape founder, Tomoaki “Nigo” Nagao, Kamakura Shirts founder, Yoshio Sadasue, and many Japanese designer brands like Comme des Garçons and Issey Miyake.

The book is clearly a product of much study of the Japanese consumption, interpretation, and production of fashion from a historical and sociological perspective. This wealth of knowledge is brought to life on the page with the help of the bevy of anecdotes and insights gleaned from Marx’s interviews with the very heavyweights he details.

I won’t belabor the point, read Ametora it’s a great book that charts the trajectory of Japanese society’s cognition of American style, from consumer to imitator to perfecter. For a taste of the book, read Marx’s recent article in The New Yorker here.

Happy reading.