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!?