10 Best Japanese Denim Brands – Top Jeans in 2024

Haven’t you heard? Japanese denim is, de facto, the most effective. “Denimhead” fanatics have been extolling its virtues for fairly a while now. In Kojima, Okayama, there’s an entire vibrant, bustling scene with roughly forty makers alone. However which of those are the most effective Japanese denim manufacturers? And why Japan?

In a grave coincidence or Stockholm syndrome, Americana cool turned trendy in Japan after World Struggle Two ended. “One of many side-effects of the US occupation throughout the second world battle was an obsession with Americana amongst Japanese youth, who embraced American popular culture and created a wholesome black market in used Levi’s and Lee denims,” experiences The Guardian. 

However what makes Japanese denim so wonderful is how Japan retained the standard strategies, not like the US business. Japanese denim makes use of conventional shuttle looms. Plus, hand-sewing, riveting, some handworked looms, and even pure indigo loop-dying are nonetheless in use. These methods take a very long time however create elegant, distinctive textures and a product of the best requirements.

So we’ve researched, curated, and delivered a shuttle loom’s value of high-quality selvedge content material to take pleasure in. Sit again, loosen up and select the most effective Japanese denim for males. We dare you. We double-denim dare you.

It’s time to welcome a effectively made pair of pants into your life that don’t scream ‘I paid tons of of {dollars} for these and waited in a ten hour line to get them.’ Whereas that’s some individuals’s vibe, it’s not going to be just right for you. In case you want a pair of denims to get you thru the day on a funds, say hi there to some Wax London denim.

The material has been formed by way of a softly tapered leg for a pure match and really feel. And the deep indigo tone will meld and alter all through the years based on your use (see FAQs for easy methods to break in uncooked Japanese denim denims). However in its initially darkish section, it’s a sensible buyer certainly.

Wish to know the place your denim comes from? And never simply casually like, oh, I’m wondering the place these denims are made, however actually like, it’s crucial I do know the provenance of this copper rivet. Then Asket is your dream model. 

This stylish pair of uncooked denim denims are constructed from 100% natural well-traveled cotton. Grown in Turkey, spun in Bangkok, dyed and weaved in Hiroshima, Japan, then completed in Yokohama, Japan. The denims are then reduce, sewn, and finalized in Italy. 

Asket gives info on every manufacturing facility, producer, and materials alongside the way in which. And when you think about Asket is predicated in Stockholm, it actually does spotlight the paradoxically globalized nature of manufacturing that goes into making the most effective Japanese denim denims. A jacket as effectively traveled as this deserves a well-traveled companion.

How are you aware in case you’ve discovered top-of-the-line Japanese denim manufacturers? As a result of you end up sporting them… daily. Drake’s distilled their vintage-spun smart-casual day by day put on aesthetic and beamed it straight into 14.2oz Japanese selvedge denim. The end result couldn’t be extra catastrophically trendy. 

A particularly uncommon shuttle loom from Okayama weaves the denim, adopted by a pure dye, then a bleach wash. The entire course of offers the impact of constructing them instantly wearable, soft-to-the-touch, and dripping with panache. Welcome to your new day by day fashion.

You already know the saying, “too many cooks spoil the broth?” Nicely, simply take a look at this tri-part collaborated denim trucker jacket and inform me that’s nonetheless true. 

The OGs within the denim recreation, Levi’s, carry their conventional rugged silhouette to the image. Junya Watanabe, protege to Rei Kawabuto (of Comme des Garçons), brings uneven stitching to the design, ushering within the idea of magnificence in imperfection. And Eye brings their West Coast good vibes. Three cooks cheffing up a number of the finest Japanese denim on the menu.

We love the little button-down pockets on the entrance, which give a extra refined and cultured strategy to the powerful trucker jackets of yore. Style it with white or off-white trousers and a pleasant pair of chunky dark brown brogues. Strive a hoodie beneath the jacket if it’s slightly chilly. Feeling daring? Double-denim the hell out of this jacket. 

I genuinely nonetheless take into consideration a pure rinse denim jacket that mysteriously disappeared in the future (positively left it in a lodge in a flurry of hungover nerves), and I miss it so. I discovered it to be the proper spring-summer associate. It’s there when the temperature drops barely, it’s there when the wind picks up, and it displays the solar’s highly effective rays. Styling-wise it goes with chinos, denims, shorts, swim shorts, go well with trousers, t-shirts… It’s a flexible beast. 

So, this jacket from The Staff Membership will do all of this and extra as a result of it’s crafted utilizing slender loom selvedge denim by the famend Okayama Mill. It’s about time I changed that jacket, you realize.

Uncooked or selvedge denim doesn’t all the time come related to white denim, however by gum, does it work. The selvedge brings magnificence to the rolled-up white hem, pushing this cotton-twill material right into a smart-casual realm. Put on a chore jacket and boat footwear with these denims for a hanging impact. 

Generally, the most effective Japanese denim manufacturers in Kojima can appear inaccessible to a Western market. For instance, one model requires you to e mail them to acquire a password to enter the web site. Hiroki Kishimoto has taken all of the heritage, ability, and craftsmanship of Japanese denim and packaged it for a Western viewers.

This specific silhouette sports activities a novel invention: a circle waistband. It’s mentioned to reflect the contours of your waist extra adeptly than a traditional waistband, thus being extra comfy to put on. We’re right here for it.

Edwin was based in Japan in 1947 when Mr. Tsunemi started importing US materials. From there, the model has develop into one of many few finest Japanese denim labels to have gone actually international. 

We love that these jeans are in black. Although not a wholly conventional Japanese denim shade, they’re a staple of menswear for a cause. These specific denims are available a lightweight 11oz selvedge denim, that means they’re softer, light-weight, and sensible. P.S. Unfastened Straight match is tremendous in proper now.

When your denims are described as battle-ready, you realize they’re going to be powerful. The weighty 18oz Zimbabwe cotton used to make these Momotaro Denims are assured to be sturdy. They’ll greedily take in life’s vicissitudes. In the meantime, the pink selvedge end and the white stripes on the bum pocket sign to different avid denimheads the effective provenance of this pair. 

These denims are sanforized, that means they’ve been softened and pre-shrunk to make the expertise of sporting these coarse denims slightly simpler on the leg hairs. For an exquisite, premium pair of denims similar to these, styling might be a breeze. Simply please don’t put on brown leather shoes with them. That’s nauseating. 

Denims are basic objects. So, once you catch a glimpse of one thing daring and stylish, it tends to return with slightly eyebrow increase and a stunned ooh. This YMC x Hawksmill collaboration mixed the pure high quality and love of the most effective Japanese denim with a artistic spirit, presenting the denim in a black-and-white pinstripe. 

Put on them as you’ll standard denims, although. Maybe with a baggy white t-shirt and a few Vans sneakers under, let these very cool denims do the speaking. However being a collaboration, that is solely a restricted version. So don’t allow them to grasp round in your open tab bar for too lengthy, and snap ‘em up.

This pair of denims are the actual deal. The delicate linear sample is the results of weaving two completely different pure indigo-dyed yarns. Utilizing pure indigo is a time-intensive fermentation course of involving plant dye in clay pots buried underground for as much as one yr. Like something fermented, every batch gives an entirely distinctive output of shade, density, and power. 

The sluggish manufacturing loom makes use of naturally slubby denim, giving the denims additional zest. Plus, it’s unsanforized (i.e., not mechanically compressed and softened). As an alternative, the material is softened by tempi, which avoids shrinkage however retains the feel anticipated with uncooked denim.

This pair is sufficient to get essentially the most emotionally indifferent denimhead buzzing with pleasure.

What To Look For When Looking For The Greatest Japanese Denim Manufacturers

Materials

Japanese denim (on the threat of annoying you) is denim made in Japan. When searching for the most effective Japanese denim manufacturers, be looking out for the load of the fabric. This can naturally form the way it behaves as a cloth and the way you may use it. 

Regulate the usage of pure indigo dyes, as it is a approach particularly cherished and preserved in Japanese manufacturing. Additionally, test to see if it has been sanforized (softened and shrunk) or pre-washed. This can dictate the way it will shrink (or not shrink) sooner or later and the way it feels from the off.

Match

This will get complicated. The cotton fibers of uncooked denim will naturally loosen up with put on, altering the match of the denims. But when they’re un-sanforized, unwashed, and untreated, they may even shrink (around 10% the size, however not within the waist). The perfect recommendation is to see what the model suggests for that individual pair of denims. In case you’re not sure, e mail the model. 

Key merchandise (jacket, denims and so on)

The denim jacket and denims are typical due to the pure rigidity and power of the denim materials. You can strive denim boxer kinds or socks, however I doubt they’d take off. A Japanese denim jacket tends to take the trucker jacket fashion, owing to their dedication to the 50s Americana fashion, and denims are often a standard five-pocket fashion for a similar cause.