A tale of two cities

[pchong]

I was recently in Seoul and Tokyo. It was interesting to observe the gentlemen going about their business and the way they dressed:

In Seoul, striped suits were the order of the day. Almost all men wore a suit with some kind of stripe - pin, chalk, cable, texture. I hardly saw any plain cloth. Black shoes were worn by 99% of thee men. And they tended to be simple loafers. Hardly anybody wore DBs, the ration of SB to DB was close to 99 to 1.

In Tokyo, the standard man's uniform suit was navy blue, black shoes, and plain white shirt. Ties were often sober blue, black or sometimes maroon. No pocket handkerchief wass in sight. And shoes were almost uniformly black. Ratio of DB to SB was more balanced...with nearly 40% DB. Amongst the young men, all wore SB, and amongst the older gentlemen and senior folks who conveyed more gravatas, DB was very common.

Nobody seem to button their coat here - almost all prefering to leave all unbuttoned whether they be wearing SB or DB. I found an interesting feature in the DB, which I have not seen elsewhere. From the left inside of the coat, starting about just below the left armpit, appears a ribbon made from suit lining material, and extends and ends in a button loop, which is used to attach to an inside button below the right flap of the DB, just below the button where it is normally buttoned. This allows the coat to be completely unbuttoned, but yet, thecoat does not swing open to reveal the owner's belly. I wished they would button their coats.

Shoes were also inevitably black.

I went to the Shinjuku store of Isetan - a major department store in Japan...the main store occupies the entire city block - perhaps almost as large as Harrods in London...and behind the main store, there is an entire block for just men's clothing. This men's block was about 1/3 the size of the main store. At the basementt was the most amazing of shoe stores. Almost all brands were present - Italian, British, and of course Japanese. The only gaping brand missing was JL Paris. The special room for EG carried almost all models of RTW EGs, and appeared larger than the Burlington Arkade store. Bespoke services were available from several manufactures.

The suits section comprise of an entire floor of high end RTW like Kiton, Brioni and the like, and almost an entire floor devoted to bespoke makers. Many Savile Row houses are present, including 4 inhouse tailors. One of them was very interesting in that the coats he made had Napolitan like sleeves. The others were strongly inspired by SR houses, but with some character. Staff at the store were impecabbly dressed, almost all sporting a nice pocket handkerchief, beautiful tie, and many brown shoes. Stripes andd textured suits were the orderr of the day in the store.

[JLibourel]

Thanks for the fascinating post. It is interesting that there is nothing remotely comparable to the men's block of the Shinjuku here in the greater Los Angeles area. Just to think, an Edward Green display equalling or surpassing the Burlington Arcade! (Althought they just moved, didn' they?) However, perhaps it is well for my fragile bank balance that no comparable establishment exists in my part of the world!

[andreyb]

A nice story.

The more I read about Japan, the more I think that Japaneses are the most devoted bespeakers in the world today.

The best men's style magazines are from Japan.

Leonardo Bugelli and many other Italian artisans left Italy only to visit Japan.

Almost all bespoke shoemakers' apprentices in UK and Italy are from Japan.

Now they have an entire floor devoted to bespoke! In a regular department store!

Andrey

[pchong]

A gentleman from Trickers was doing a making demonstration of shoes at Isetan when I was there...and I stood there chatting with him. He was formerly from Edward Green. He was invited to give a guest lecture at Guild of Crafts at Akasaka. The Guild makes bespoke shoes, and they run a course in shoemaking, where participants are given the materials and instruction to complete a pair of bespoke shoes. Interesting indeed!

I asked him about the quality of shoemaking in Japan - making reference specifically to Otsuka, Guild of Craft, Koji Suzuki (the most celebrated of Japanese makers). He remarked that in terms of the clicking, making, closin - the stitching in particular, the Japanese, being totally quality obsessed craftsmen, do a better job than any European house. But somehow, the quality of the leather is lacking, except perhaps for Suzuki. Interesting comments.

I will try and post some pictures of the brochures I took from Isetan Men's Shinjuku...I did not bring my own camera, so no pictures of my own. My next trip, maybe I should do a Sartorialist style report.

[uppercase]

Looking forward to it!