Kojima Jeans :: Japan-Fashion.com

Wherever I go in Japan, the scenery remains the same

Wherever I go, my eyes are met by a continuous stream of telegraph poles, nationally standardised guardrails and the same indistinct rows of housing.
A mundane truth. Occasionally though, the essence of an unfamiliar landscape forces itself lucidly to the surface, yet ultimately it's swallowed up into the framework of the ordinary. These are the passing thoughts my mind lingers upon from time to time, always at battle with the everyday and confirmed by one glance at the nonchalant Tokyo skyline.

The feeling remains the same.

I wonder if it's foul to part from the city I belong. Perhaps the doors will be closed where ever I go. Even if I were to step 250km over these city walls...

Passing city after city and village after village, I finally arrived at my rural destination after three hours on the bullet train and a 30 minute express train ride from Okayama. I felt uneasy for a moment as signs of human life began to disappear.

Traveling the vast distance from Tokyo to Okayama, my eyes were bombarded by landscapes void of originality, whilst my mind brimmed with expectation at the thought of scrutinizing some dazzling products to showcase to the world, and so I couldn't quite make sense of the simple reality that here I was.

Made in Kojima

Kurashikishi, in the Kojima district in south east Okayama is fittingly known as 'the birthplace of the domestic jeans'.

With a population of seventy thousand, Kurashiki once flourished as producers of salt, although it was the fiber industry that originally prospered here. This is what brought about the increase in the number of factories operating here in general, including chromatic processing plants - particularly prevalent in the Kojima area. It was due to this expertise in the field of fiber that Kojima was able to develop into a strong independent region in the total production of denim.

In addition to being the mecca and birthplace of domestic denim, Kojima is also responsible for manufacturing about 70% of the country's male school uniforms, the famous sailor inspired school uniform and the instantly recognizable Japanese gym suit. Kojima is, more or less, the nation's school uniform maker in all it's stylistic variations and sizes.

For several decades in Japan a battle has been playing back and forth following the appearance of the Levi's 66 model and in particular, the vintage looking 501xx model, both entering the Japanese market at a remarkable price towards the end of the sixties.

This event was responsible for a new development in the history of denim as the major domestic jeans companies were prompted to launch several vintage and reprinted models of their own in order to compete with the US giant. As a result however, it became difficult for brand new vintage jeans to enter a market that had quickly become saturated with precision made, mass manufactured denim - merchandise somewhat conflicting with the 'vintage' ethos it was attempting to reflect. This was to be the driving force behind the factories of Kojima, where every piece is handmade, one by one - a long established status quo that's not set to change.

In terms of quality, the impossible is achieved.

Kojima is also the area in which several processing techniques, such as fraying, creasing and stonewash emerged and developed before anywhere else in the world. This may be another reason why many major jeans companies manufacture their products here.

A pair of jeans have to be worn in over time in order to awake that deep "worn out" essence resting beneath, but imagine being able to buy a brand new pair already complete with that "used" vintage charm.

The jeans movement is back, confirmed by 'new vintage' which has swept into popularity within recent years and non-wash(unprocessed) jeans, already the mainstream in New York at the moment.

Jeans made in Kojima