Sunday, December 21, 2008

Harajuku Streets: Patches



Today I tried to repeat my last successfull vintage spotting by going to Harajuku to take pictures. My initial plan was to go to Omotesando street, where a lot of people pass and where pretty much all streetstyle photographers hang out because of this.
However, the streets were literally crammed with people and even though there wasn't really any space at all to take a photo, there were photographers everywhere. Outside H&M the line was also almost as long as before the Comme des Garcons release.
I've never seen Harajuku like this and I couldn't fathom why until I sat down to write this--it's Christmas, I just remembered! Christmas spirit is non-existant for me here, but I don't really miss it much.

Anyway, I gave up and decided to head further into Harajuku, to Harajuku street where there is a cluster of at least 10-12 great vintage shops. This is one of my favourite places for vintage shopping and I highly recommend spending time there, but going through the shops will take at least 30 hours if you actually try stuff on.
Incidentally, I went to Lost Hills to look at a nice, thin Wrangler denim jacket that I was going to wear as a shirt. This shop is the one that Inoue showed me.
While there I saw another fine gentleman and asked to take his picture.

His name is Shingo, he's 30 and a 'salaryman'. Salaryman is a loanword that is basically used to described the millions of identically looking, black suit-clad office workers in Tokyo and Japan.
Today he looked nothing like a salaryman and I bet he appreciates his weekends when he can wear what he likes the most, vintage.
Here's another guy that wears only vintage, there's quite a few of them here and it makes me happy to see.

He's wearing a '70s-'80s Powderhorn Mountaineering jacket, a '70s-'80s women's wool cardigan, LL Bean Boots and unbranded, beautifully patched, light denim work pants.

This type of pant has been produced by many different brands like KEY, Big Smith and Boss of the Road. The UFO rivets are iconic for this type of pant and era.
I would date these jeans to somewhere around the 1940s, but they could also be slightly later or earlier. Shingo bought them in this worn and patch state in nearby shop VOICE.
I have personally been looking for pants like this with bright orange stitching in a one wash state that I can break in myself.






Thanks Shingo!

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