Priced at around $40, it’s hard to find raw selvedge going for much cheaper, and aside from the obvious use of lightweight denim, Chinese manufacturing (not necessarily a bad thing) and a rather conservative feature set, there’s nothing blatantly off-putting about these Uniqlo selvedge jeans. However, one thing I wish they had is a button up fly. These jeans are model S002, which are a straight leg cut, but I’m not sure how the fit will change after their first shrink.

From what I’ve heard, Uniqlo selvedge tends to bleed quite easily, which means producing distress patterns should take a lot less effort than my documented battle with a much more expensive brand. We’ll see how they stand up to daily abuse over the next couple of months; I’ll have to post a follow-up documenting my progress. Until then, I’d better avoid wearing susceptible clothing and sitting on light colored furniture, but hey, that’s all part of the ritual and sacrifice in producing a highly customized look! The way I see it, for the bargain that they are, it’s more of a risk of my time than money.

A rib injury has kept me from the gym these past few weeks, and has highlighted my need for a backup exercise when I can’t go kickboxing. As my cardio is not the greatest, last week I figured I’d try shopping for some running shoes.

The first shop I went to was INGS, in downtown Osaka. They have a great selection of sports wear, but when I paid them a visit, it was busy as hell and I got frustrated trying to hunt down available store staff. Fortunately, this held off my purchase, which brings me to this afternoon.

Today, I walked into the Umeda Step Sports store and found the Asics GT 2150 running shoe. This is the latest update to Asics’ best selling line of runners, and according to the girl working there, they were just delivered to the store this morning!

The last pair of Asics I owned were GT-2100’s, and I can tell there’s been a lot of improvement to the line since then. Fortunately these shoes are still reasonable, at around $100, which leaves a bit of change left over for a sweet tracksuit I spotted at Sports Mitsuhashi.

And now I need to stop reviewing shit and get some road work done!

It’s been about a year since I last wrote about my pair of Evisu No. 1 Lot 2000 raw selvedge jeans that I bought from the original Evisu store in Umeda, Osaka. With another 600 hours of wear, I can still say that they are somewhat difficult to break down; however, things have progressed nicely since my last report, and I am optimistic that the final outcome will be good!

And I should clarify – when I quote 600 hours of wear, I am referring to logged work time at my laboring job. The amount of time might not seem like much (now a lifetime total of 1200 hours), but I spend more than 95% of that time in motion, doing various physical activities. Unfortunately, these activities don’t seem very proficient at producing the distressed patterns that I had hoped to achieve. Maybe I should try farming or construction instead (yea, right!).

The Damage

Inspecting the front of the pants, there’s obviously more visible wear than the last time I checked. Areas around the pockets and button up fly have begun to rub down nicely, with further distressing continuing down the thighs. Around each knee, there are two circular areas that have been rubbed down, but they are now merging into one. This was caused by wearing the jeans for a while before they were shrunk. I’ll speak more of this in a bit.

At the bottom of each leg there’s a few contrast lines emerging. As these jeans have not been hemmed, they tend to bunch up around the ankles to create these nice artifacts.

Turning the denim over, things are not going quite so well. Although the right rear pocket with the hand painted Evisu logo shows a fair amount of wear – due to a tool being worn on that side – the rest of the rear remains virtually untouched! Only the bottom of each pant leg show visible signs of wear. This is also a spot where a small hole has developed. I’ll probably stitch it up before it gets out of hand.

Size and Shrinkage

Regarding the shrinking of these jeans, when I first brought them home over two years ago, I figured the last thing I should do was to wash them. Owners of raw unsanfortized denim want to rub off the indigo dye through natural wear, not uniformly lighten the color through machine washes. So I took them to work and wore them in their native gargantuan size for several months.

After a while, I realized that wearing the jeans in their unshrunken state wasn’t producing much wear – there just wasn’t enough friction between the body and the denim to get the process started. The exception was the area around the knees, which is why there are now distressed spots slightly above the knee caps (these areas have seemingly been raised now that the jeans have been shorted by the shrink). If I could go back and do it again, I would have definitely shrunk them right away and avoided the wait.

I’ve only washed the jeans a couple times in the last 2 years, and if they didn’t get so dirty at work, I’d probably wash them even less. However, washing them present a good opportunity to assess how much wear has taken place – something that’s difficult to see through all the dirt and grime that accumulates on the surface. Washing also invokes a bit of shrinkage, and although much of this has been permanently cut down by the initial shrink, there’s still about an inch or so of leeway around the waist.

Because of the initial shrinkage and the continual fluctuations in size, I think that if I had bought these jeans without a professional in-store fitter, I would of bought a size too small, and would now be resorting to sadistic fabric stretching to make them fit. This is why it bothers me to mail order raw denim. Recently though, I have begun to see fitting guides for raw selvedge available from online stores. It’s about time!

So that’s my annual raw selvedge update rant. If you can still find Special No. 1 Lot 2000 Evisu jeans, and if you can actually afford them in this economy (they cost over $300 in Japan), I hope you’re either a patient person, or your job involves rolling around on pumice rocks all day. These bad boys are definitely a work in process – and probably will be for life – but this is what buying raw denim is all about!

Comme ca Ism in Japan is like the GAP in America – they offer affordable, yet stylish clothing, in stores that have become ubiquitous throughout the land. Serving the entire family, with men’s, women’s and children’s wear, they have garnered a large following due to their sensible, if not rather conservative, choice of styles and colors. Comme ca Ism also provides a full selection of accessories, like briefcases and wallets.

I once arrived at Kansai airport after an 11 hour flight and had to immediately attend a gathering at a famous Osakan nightclub. With nothing more than a day bag and the sweaty clothes on my back, I had less than an hour to look for something to wear! Comme ca Ism basically saved my ass (and on a budget); I walked out with an outfit (minus the shoes) for about $200.

I still wear a few pieces of that Comme ca outfit today. Their preference for black and white styling and mostly subdued color schemes makes their stuff a bit more timeless than that of other cheaper brands. Although they’re not exactly my number one place to shop, I still occasionally walk through their store in downtown Osaka and always smile when I hear loud Beatles music playing (they only play Beatles music!).

So if you’re ever visiting Japan, and you begin to feel a little under dressed, as many visitors probably do, try to find your way to a Comme ca Ism. Their stores are a lot more open and less intimidating than the innumerable boutiques you’ll inevitably stumble across, and their staff are quite friendly and helpful.

But after you get over that hurdle, it’s time to break out the plastic and go shopping for raw selvedge!

After successfully conquering the world of high-end retro denim, by essentially pioneering the market, Osaka-based Evisu has gone on to launch an entire range of apparel, like these classy looking loafers that are on sale now.

Evisu shoes have been around for a few years, and were introduced as a means for connoisseurs of the brand to clothe their feet in the same laidback but stylishly rich look that Evisu is famous for.

Featuring perforated suede and an easy slip-on design, these Evisu loafers make transitioning into Spring/Summer a welcomed change.

I’ve always had a penchant for discovering zany Japanese denim, but rarely have I ever considered donning the items that I find most interesting – supreme cowardice, I know!

Fortunately, the vulgarian fad-chasing youth of Japan never seem to shy away from the hyperbolic styling of their domestic brands. Indeed, demand for superlative distressed clothing remains strong, year-after-year, especially among Osakans.

Over the past decade, demand has sustained a plethora of Japanese micro-labels that specialize in sadistically plebeianizing otherwise perfectly good denim. Take these Root Three Used jeans by Knock Store for example – a landslide of garish colors and patterns await your senses!

Starting with deep dyed denim, these garments are given a prison-style beat down, producing copious amounts of high-contrast scarring and detail. Vertical and horizontal distress patterns jump out like fresh graffiti on your car hood, with black and red paint splatters conveying your (ironic) appreciation for the higher arts.

So, are consumers of distressed fashion simply trying to find a look that is more tattered, dirty and worn than the last outfit that they wore? Not really.

Buyers of radically distressed garments are usually more concerned about subtle details and specific styling than some dreamt up quest to become the most ragged and offensive looking person in Japan (although I wouldn’t rule this out entirely). With this in mind, the distressed look has branched into innumerable micro-niches, each evolving independently to serve a particular style of destruction.

A special note of interest: Under the model’s bio, he lists soccer and hangovers as his special skills; who says it’s hard to find work during a recession!?

If Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl was older and Japanese, he’d probably be in Tokyo’s Ginza district drinking I.W. Harper at Bar Vespa.

I found this ad while flipping through an accessories magazine called Men’s Ex. Aside from the nasty goatee, this dude pretty much resembles what I’d imagine an Asian Ed Westwick would look like. 

This is a really cool look from Body Butter’s Jodhpur suit collection.

The slim burgundy suit contrasts nicely with the charcoal pinstriped vest, and as a highlight, they gave the model some pretty stylin’ kicks as well (somewhat reminiscent of the Takahara’s I mentioned a while back).

Body Butter says this suit type has a ’slimming silhouette’, which means the garment features clean lines and carefully aligned buttons to give the wearer the appearance of a smaller waistline.

To me, it just looks like a slim suit. Like, if you can’t already squeeze your marshmallow ass into this skinny getup, it won’t be doing much for your silhouette now, will it?

At about $500, I’d call this set reasonable for a brand that calls itself Body Butter. 

Wearing white canvas sneakers with dark unwashed denim is never a good idea.

Thinking that I had washed most of the excess dye out of my denim jeans, I tried wearing them with these unworn Diesel shoes, just for a day, and look what happened – dirty blue sneakers!

God knows if I can gently bleach these babies back to their original state. Next time, I’ll take my time and tape up the insides of my pant legs or just forgo wearing white shoes altogether with untrustworthy denim.

Oh well, it is never a bad time to shop for more footwear. A recession just means more deals, right?!

Walk into any convenience store or pharmacy in Japan and you’ll likely find Gatsby deodorant and hairstyling products in the toiletry section. Gatsby is a maker of beauty care products, specifically for men, and is owned by Osaka based Mandom Corp.

So how does Gatsby Gold deodorant fair against its Gillette and Mennen counterparts?

Gatsby Gold has a pleasant fragrance, but one that diminishes quickly after use. Japanese people consider strong fragrances a bit offensive, so it’s not surprising that their deodorants lack that head slamming nasal shot you get every time you walk past a crowd of teenagers wearing Axe or TAG. Furthermore, most Southeast Asians lack any sort of body odor to begin with, so an olfactory smokescreen is not really what they’re going for.

When might you use Gatsby Gold?

This Gatsby deodorant is probably best used for short trips out of the house, and not for 9-to-5 workdays, riding crowded commuter trains and the like. Personally, I usually forgo the use of pure deodorants and opt for the chalky white stuff (anti-perspirants). I find that staying dry is pretty essential to smelling clean; spray on fragrances do nothing to keep your dry!

Next up, is Gatsby’s Moving Rubber hair wax.

This stuff comes in travel or bathroom sized allotments and is great for adding style and hold to your hairdo. Each type of wax comes with a unique name and container color, and each one is rated by shine and strength on an easy-to-read scale. For instance, the Wild Shake flavor that I’m using right now scores high in strength, but low on shine. This is something Astro Boy might use!

With 4-foot high hairdos being quite the norm in Japan, good hair styling and cleaning products are sold everywhere. In comparison, they’re not quite up to par with their domestic selection of deodorants. Although you can find a few western strength products in Japan, like Axe and Old Spice, those might not be your products of choice (well I’m hoping they’re not!). So when visiting – and I hope you will travel to the Island at least once in your life – you might want to pack a few extra spray cans of whatever you use to mask your explosive barbarian odor!