Niche Clothing Kapital

Niche Clothing Kapital

Author: Asai Airi

Vintage has become popular in recent years, and reminiscing about past designs and fabric textures has become synonymous with the pursuit of quality and fashion. KAPITAL is such a brand that focuses on American retro. Recently, the trend website Putthison published an article teasing that KAPITAL's design and "Tiger King" Joe Exotic's outfits have various degrees of coincidence, such as fringed leather jackets and leopard print fleece jackets, which is enough to prove how strong KAPITAL is in American retro style.
I think that players who pay attention to Japanese fashion cannot be unaware of Visvim, and how can they not know Kapital if they know Visvim? The two brands have similar styles-a perfect combination of American style and Japanese craftsmanship. Of course, there are also differences between the two. KAPITAL is more niche, and the mainstream products are more affordable, but the exposure has gradually increased in recent years. Without further ado, let's take a look at KAPITAL's upper body:

Kanye West's cashew quilted jacket

A$AP Rocky's smiley face sweatshirt

Smiley face denim jacket from Catalogue

The most amazing thing is that the clothes worn by the Japanese grandfather in Blade Runner in 1982 are very similar to the designs of Kapital today.

Clothing with classic smiley faces and cashew flower elements is also the most popular one. Celebrities have brought KAPITAL to the public. KAPITAL also cooperates with LV. One of the founders, Kazuhiro Hirata, cooperates with Kim Jones to provide design inspiration for the 2013SSLV ready-to-wear.

The new season of 2020SS focuses on Chinese Kung Fu and chivalrous culture, boldly mixing Tang suits, buttons, bamboo hats and classic smiley faces for an extra touch of weirdness.

In 2010, KAPITAL launched the Kourtney branch, focusing on the development of Boro cloth skills, dyeing and washing processes, and promoting more complex traditional Japanese craftsmanship, mending various rags to create collages and varied denim patterns. This is clearly high-end beggars, okay?

The birth of KAPITAL
Speaking of KAPITAL's clothing style, we have to mention its origin. The founders of KAPITAL are Toshiki Hirata and Kazuhiro Hirata. As early as 1970, Toshiki Hirata participated in the karate competition at the Osaka World Expo. Inspired by foreign tourists, he went to the United States and worked in a gym. Then, with the support of a group of Japanese expatriates, he embarked on an adventure by hitchhiking across the United States in the early 1970s. This "On the Road"-like journey exposed him to hippies, American style and jeans. After returning to Japan and working for the famous jeans brand John Bull for a few years, he improved his sewing skills and founded KAPITAL in Okayama in 1985. (Okayama has always been famous for producing jeans)
Toshiki Hirata and Tarunaga Moto, the owner of "Hollywood Ranch Market", hit it off and combined Japanese country style with retro American aesthetics to launch Japanese craft jeans. After opening up sales, KAPITAL produced jeans for Hysteric Glamour, Studio D'artisan and Denime. Later, his son Kazuhiro Hirata joined. He was a designer at 45rpm and is good at combining American retro, French casual wear, Italian tailoring and traditional Japanese craftsmanship.

Kapital 2018SS Photographer: Eric Kvatek
Speaking of another contributor to KAPITAL, we have to mention Eric Kvatek, the photographer of KAPITAL Lookbook. He searched for vintage work clothes for Japanese vintage stores in various states in the United States in the 1990s when vintage culture was popular in Japan. Such a senior vintage person and the Hirata father and son are a perfect match. Japan has always had an atmosphere of combining and transforming American imported products with traditional culture, accumulated rich resources, and the market and consumers are quite mature. Perhaps because of this, KAPITAL, which started with denim and indigo dyeing, can mix and match various American and national cultures in a fanciful way.

KAPITAL's ethnic style
KAPITAL launches a catalogue every season. Photographer Eric Kwati uses clothing to express a theme around a theme and obtains inspiration from all over the world. Each catalogue is like a picture book that tells a story, appropriately conveying the brand's characteristics in the scenery and characters. However, the price has also risen with KAPITAL's popularity. If you are a fan of KAPITAL, it is worth collecting. For more catalogues, you can log in to the KAPITAL official website.

The theme of 2015-2016FW LAPPLAND is like hippies coming to the foot of the snow-capped mountains, with long drooping tassels, loose silhouettes, cowboy boots, and casual layering. The casual and loose style brings the body a sense of freedom and uninhibitedness, as if bringing people back to the 60s and 70s when rock music was echoing.

In the 2016SS Denim Perth theme, KAPITAL took young people wearing jeans to a small village on the coast of Australia, where there are sunny beaches and free pursuits in the desert. Comfortable linen, cotton and earth tones became the main elements.

In the 2016FW Bad Opera, happy and eccentric young people danced in the ruins and gathered in groups in front of the ancient church. Their exaggerated expressions and postures showed that they were fearless of any difficulties. The wide version became the protagonist, highlighting some bright colors in the dull colors of winter.

The 2017SS T.I.A theme showcases the combination of traditional elements and Japanese draping details. This time, they came to Africa, played with the children in the small town, and had fun on the beach.

The theme of 2018SS Himalayan High Ivy, this time KAPITAL went to Kathmandu, Nepal for shooting. The characters were dressed in loose and casual clothes, wandering in a mysterious and simple environment, integrating yoga and spiritual practice culture into it.

The 2018FW Kountry line reproduces the costumes of the Ainu people in Japan, using the unique embroidery patterns and theological and totemic symbolic patterns to highlight their unique ethnic style. This ethnic group has thick hair and is the indigenous people of Japan.
Kazuhiro Hirata, one of the founders of KAPITAL, loves the cashew flower pattern so much that he launched a branch line Bandana, which specializes in selling clothing with cashew flower elements. This pattern originated in India, where it is called Bandanna. It spread across Europe through the Scottish town under the name of "Paisley", and was spread by sailors on the way. During World War II, it gradually evolved into an indispensable element in the traditional look of American workers.

Finally
KAPITAL is good at exploring ethnic cultures around the world. It has gone to the Rocky Mountains, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and even all over the world to explore unique cultures, creating a small planet full of freedom and wandering. It is far away from modern cities and returns to the simplicity of nature. The characters in KAPITAL's world are all wanderers, with scattered hair and wheat-colored skin, as if they can leave at any time and anywhere. Drawing elements and design inspiration from various ethnic cultures in the world and integrating them is KAPITAL's forte. I personally think that KAPITAL's logo is not a flat pattern such as a smiley face or a bone, but the organic integration of cashew flowers, Indian totems, Bohemia, etc. in tailoring and fabric application. I am looking forward to what kind of ethnic styles KAPITAL can play in the future. Come and leave a message and tell me how you feel.

 

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