In the late 1980s, Evisu, Denime, Fullcount, Warehouse and Studio D'artisan led the hundreds of brands that emerged to produce replica denim during Japan’s “Replica Movement ”. The period saw a wave of mania via avid collectors pursuing and paying thousands of dollars for vintage jeans.
STUDIO D'ARTISAN
Founder: Shigeharu Tagaki
1979 - Studio D'Artisan
1986 - DO-1 jeans release
1995 - Tagaki left company
DENIME
Born: 1956
1988 - Founded
1989 - Denime (Dunimu) - ORIZZONTI + red tab
2005 - Denime (Dunimu) - SHINS INC + red tab
2010 - Denime (Dunimu) - no red tab
2010 - Resolute (Rizoruto)
Established in Osaka, Japan in 1988 by Yoshiyuki Hayashi. He was born in 1956. Denime is also a top jeans brand in Japan and they're producing high quality vintage cut jeans with top notch construction and their simplicity.
Denime is a pioneer in reproduction Japanese denim making. Denime remakes now hard-to-find hidden masterpieces from the 50s to 70s America, with the concept of faithfully conveying the atmosphere of the old time, insisting on superior denim making at the levels of the fabric, fade, sewing, accessories, and wear. While faithfully remaking the old items, Denime incorporates modern trend.
The brand name "Denime" (pronounced du-nee-m) derives from a sturdy fabric called "Serge de Nimes" in the 15th century Nice, France. The word "denim" itself is believed to derive from this "Serge de Nimes." Denime initially created its classic Denime XX type in 1988 through dismantling the 1950s deadstock denim at the thread level to scrutinize the place of where the cotton is originally made, thread number, color, dye, and woven yarn count. Denime XX type was initially made only 144 pieces. Denime took about six months from the creation of the prototype to begin the production of XX type, after confirming the successful fading. Denime denim shows its true strength after about six months of wear.
The first Denime released was under Orizzonti that producing early Denime jeans around 90s. According to Denime fans, this was the best periods of Denime in terms of denim quality-wise. After that in Feb 2005, Shins Inc take over and continue producing great Denime jeans. In 2009, Wego Inc take over Denime. Not for along time in the same year, Mr. Tsujimoto of NYLON (Real McCoy founder) purchased Denime and continue to restart the Denime nascent to produce Denime jeans till now. As we can see all new Denime jeans doesn't have a red tab on their back pocket.
The brand name "Denime" (pronounced du-nee-m) derives from a sturdy fabric called "Serge de Nimes" in the 15th century Nice, France. The word "denim" itself is believed to derive from this "Serge de Nimes." Denime initially created its classic Denime XX type in 1988 through dismantling the 1950s deadstock denim at the thread level to scrutinize the place of where the cotton is originally made, thread number, color, dye, and woven yarn count. Denime XX type was initially made only 144 pieces. Denime took about six months from the creation of the prototype to begin the production of XX type, after confirming the successful fading. Denime denim shows its true strength after about six months of wear.
The first Denime released was under Orizzonti that producing early Denime jeans around 90s. According to Denime fans, this was the best periods of Denime in terms of denim quality-wise. After that in Feb 2005, Shins Inc take over and continue producing great Denime jeans. In 2009, Wego Inc take over Denime. Not for along time in the same year, Mr. Tsujimoto of NYLON (Real McCoy founder) purchased Denime and continue to restart the Denime nascent to produce Denime jeans till now. As we can see all new Denime jeans doesn't have a red tab on their back pocket.
After Denime was becoming very stricting for Hayashi-san and he couldn't make what he wanted, he start to make new jeans Resolute.
EVISU
Born: 1959
1988 - Evis
1991 - Evisu (Ebisu)
2004 - Yamane Djinzu (Chan Mountain)
Established in Osaka, Japan in 1991 by Hidehiko Yamane. He was born in 1959. Before Evisu, he started Evis in 1988. Evisu is known for its vintage-style jeans. The label was named after the Japanese Buddhist god of money (also written as Evis or Ebisu) by the designer. Yamane is a tailor and a tinker. His personal preference for vintage jeans led him to create Evisu which started as a vintage clothing import business. Necessity is the mother of invention. Needing better quality vintage-style jeans, Yamane started designing and also tinkering with machinery to produce his designs.
After WWII, U.S. acts to rebuild Japanese economy included donating outdated industrial equipment. Among the imports were original shuttle looms from the 50s. At least one of which still remains at Evisu and facilitated founder Hidehiko Yamane’s fixation with reproducing the Levi’s 1944 501xx. The original pair was made for only nine months. The hand-painting Evisu seagull was hyper-stylized by Yamane from Levi's 1944 501xx as American government prohibited nonessential production (restricting the use of metals, rubber, paper and plastics ) during the war.
Other info:
エビスヤデ = EBISU YA DE. It's Kansai (Osaka) dialect
戎 = Ebisu
Other info:
エビスヤデ = EBISU YA DE. It's Kansai (Osaka) dialect
戎 = Ebisu
FULLCOUNT
1992 - Start making jeans
FULLCOUNT & Co. has a long history in the Japanese denim industry, the company started making jeans in Okayama in 1992. FULLCOUNT was the first 'Made in Japan' denim company to use Zimbabwe cotton denim fabric - commonplace today in the premium denim industry, but revolutionary two decades ago when FULLCOUNT was born. Owner and Head Designer, Mikiharu Tsujita, is a hard advocate for the use of raw Zimbabwe cotton in the production of the denim fabric that FULLCOUNT uses.
WAREHOUSE
Founder: Shiotani Brothers
1995 - Warehouse
Reference:
http://trendland.net/denim-profile-the-future-of-making-history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evisu
http://amazingfunnyasia.blogspot.com/2010/05/yamane-evisu-one-of-best-jeans-on-earth.html
http://www.nitrolicious.com/blog/2006/07/25/yamane/
http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=210667
http://mynudies.com/showthread.php?3892-Denime
http://denim-gallery.heavy.jp/denime/
http://www.rawrdenim.com/2014/03/history-osaka-5/
