The good folks at 55DSL sent us a sample of some of their men's line for a review a while back, and while we were at it we picked up a few bits from their women's line from their shop in Harajuku, Tokyo. Always good to get 'real world' samples so as not to rely solely on handpicked items.
Overall the quality of the clothing - especially the denim - is one of the main things that stuck out to me. The denim feels really substantial and the pants are solidly built. My pair of grey men's Peex have so far survived numerous bike rides, several nights out, the streets of Tokyo and San Francisco, and they're still looking good. They don't pick up dirt or stains very easily, I don't feel like they're stretching out on me, and nothing is fraying or wearing out so far.
On the women's side Ivy picked up two pairs - one light blue Parisky and an acid washed looking Parisky Bleached. Like the men's, these are holding up well and feel just as solid.
With the Diesel heritage it's really not a surprise that the denim was solid - these jeans are just as well made.
I was also able to check out a red flannel-print Fujii Lin jacket. This is sort of a medium weight coat - it's thicker than a windbreaker but not quite a jacket. This makes it great for autumn, or for wearing out to clubs during winter since it's light enough that you might not have to check it in. Like the denim, this also feels really well made and durable.
We both got ourselves a tee shirt as well, but really tee shirts are tee shirts - there's not much to say here. They look good, and they aren't falling apart, so it's all good.
Primarily located in Asia (several locations in Japan, Korea, & Hong Kong), the only boutiques in the western hemisphere are in New York, London, and Milan. We visited the Harajuku location, and the service was impeccable, as was the store itself. It's even located in a cool back-alley corner spot slightly off the busier parts of the neighborhood. Well worth a visit.
Click here for a list of their locations.
in the NW these jackets have been around for about fifty years: they are basic logger wear- the ancient pattern of the lumberjack and residents of Aberdeen.
who decides what's cool?
that's true. but clothing companies strive to find their niche and put a different or fresh new twist on their image and product lines to gain a following or simply to grow the business.
55dsl took basic logger wear, tweaked its designs and marketed to the youth streetwear segments in europe and asia.
btw, i found a new site focusing on building the denim/ jeans brand database. looks good and big potential.
alpha,
I guess my question is: does fashion still grow from the bottom up, or is it something that is decided beforehand, then passed on as the cool of the day? Is it simply a matter of heavy marketing, and niche targets?
The whole industry fascinates me, but what is more interesting is the response, especially in Japan, where America still seems to be the dog that wags the tail.
Cheers.
Fashion has always been a mixture of trickle-up and -down. Streetwear especially is influenced by both of these factors as it's often the mid-market segment that's between those two worlds. It's close enough to the 'streets' to be influenced strongly by youth trends, yet many designers aspire to be more accepted in the established fashion world (especially as they get older), and thus they start to bleed into higher end items inspired by the runways.
Streetwear is also kind of a gateway drug - what happens when the cool kid turns 35? Odds are they don't transform into WalMart shoppers. Designers often make the same transition from being really young and punky to slowly getting more and more clean and grown up.
Vivienne Westwood is a good example - from a punk-rock diva to super-luxe high end designs.
Marketing is a part of it, especially with the big brands, but marketing usually lags behind the trends a bit. There are rare cases where it leads, but most of the time the marketing follows. At its best it's not totally disingenuous, many brands really are in tune to the 'real' cultures out there and are staffed with true tastemakers, but at its worst it results in obvious me-too plays.
anyone know why it's called parisky?
....that's my last name
Sean,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I just finished reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. The main character, Cayce, is a free-lance cool-hunter. Much of her life is spent finding the happening thing, then reporting back to whoever has hired her.
Yet, logos and brands maker her physically sick. Fascinating read. If Gibson is right, as much as he has been right about the "internets" and technology generally, we may end up with the anti-fashion/fashion of Cayce in years to come. But then, that too will be a fashion, no?
Again, cheers. And I love your magazine. Keep it up.
Chris
Thanks for the support :-) And yeah, I can imagine a cool hunter being sick of 'cool'. If you think about it, 'cool' is in a sense related to novelty, newness, and uniqueness, all of which are relative. To a cool hunter, those new things aren't so new anymore.
I work in advertising/PR, and I had a similar convo with a colleague - us ad/PR people tend to be the most anti-advertising and marketing people around, and are very sensitive to any type of marketing.
And with regards to anti-fashion, I think that almost all trickle-up trends begin that way :-) Punk in the 70's and grunge in the 90's both stick out as anti-fashion trends that became super fashionable, much to the chagrin of the early adopters.
