Harajuku Streets: Daisuke

Yesterday I did my first real 'vintage snap outing'. The two previous people I've shot have been more coincidental but now I've started thinking that it's really interesting to see vintage items actually being worn and coordinated with other vintage pieces. (Would be great to hear what you think about it.)

Omotesando dori is still packed and might not have what I'm looking for anyway, so I set up my tent on Harajuku street. As I've mentioned before, this is where most of the vintage shops are located so it's logical for me to go there.
I'm now learning how take street snaps and it's a little more difficult than it seems and takes a little more time, too. Capturing the spirit of a person and place like The Sartorialist can is very hard.

What I do now is that I hang around on a parking lot, leaning on a vending machine all day. It's really a very relaxing thing to do for me, it gives me a lot of time to think, about clothes but also everything else in my life, and looking at people is fun too.

Daisuke was the first one I shot yesterday and he was a real easy catch as he works at ZOOL, one of the absolute best vintage shops, right next to my spot and was having a break when I saw him.
He's 26 and has been into vintage clothing for about 15 years. They certainly start young here, I'm just a rookie in comparison!
His favourite garment is '30s and '40s leather jackets. He collects them and has about 50 jackets!






He's wearing a '30s-'40s Brown's Beach jacket, a '50s shirt, WW2 work pants and '50s engineer's boots. The only item that isn't vintage is his Dapper's, a brand that makes reproductions as well as new but vintage inspired designs, cap.

The Brown's Beach jacket is a very sought after item and quite rare too. What's special about the Beach jacket is the speckled wool fabric, it's like a blown up salt and pepper fabric.
Go here to look at better pictures of an identical Beach jacket.

I guessed that his pants were U.S. Navy and so did he when he first got them, but he was then told by a U.S. vintage dealer that they weren't. They're just work pants, but they are very similar to Navy pants.

What dates them to the WW2 era is the laurel leaf button that can also be found on Levi's and many other brands of the same era.


Thank you Daisuke!

Harajuku streets: WW2 Levi's

Yesterday I was riding the subway to Harajuku and I noticed this fine gentleman who was exquisitely dressed. He was wearing a heavy sweatshirt that looked like it could be vintage, even though it was in great condition, together with some mid-blue jeans that were vintage Levi's or Levi's replica.
The jeans had not so distinct fading but very nice texture and a few stains and repairs here and there.

He got off at Harajuku too and while standing behind him in the escalator I got a chance to have a closer look at his jeans. I noticed the crooked stitching on the backpockets and the curved shape of them and that there was no trace of an arcuate at all. They were real World War II Levi's!

It's a rare sight to see these worn, even though it does happen from time to time in Harajuku, so inquisitive me stopped him and asked to take his picture.


Mid picture: notice the crooked stitching on the coinpocket. Also, look at the long vertical yellow stitch that connects the back piece with the front piece at hip level. Ryo from Ooe Yofukuten & Co. taught me that you can use this seam to date Levi's--on pre-50s Levi's it will reach below half the height of the backpocket, but on later Levi's it is shorter and ends at about 1/3 of the backpocket.




His name is Inoue Satoshi, he's 24 and a carpenter. No, don't be afraid, he doesn't wear these jeans to work!
He had been interested in vintage clothing for about ten years, since he was a little kid. Nowdays he wears vintage almost exclusively.
In his bag he had another pair of Levi's, 1947-1951s, in a similar state as the jeans he was wearing, and a vintage leather jacket and some other vintage garments.
The sweatshirt he was wearing was 1950s vintage.

His favourite vintage stores were BerBerJin(likewise), Santa Monica and Lost Hills, which I actually hadn't been to before since it's on a small street off Harajuku street. It's a nice store that deals with 50s-80s, mostly American but also some European, vintage clothing, with fair prices.

And yeah, in case you wonder about the prices of vintage Levi's in Tokyo, these jeans cost 300,000 yen or about $3,000.

Thanks, Inoue!