Tokyo Denim Trip: Daikanyama, Ebisu and Nakameguro

As we continue our denim hunting in Japan, we made a stop in the picturesque indigo capital of Japan; Kojima. We’re visiting Collect co, Big John and Momotaro and are also hoping to squeeze in some retail, too. We’ll post updates soon…

For now, here is a round up of our travels around Daikanyama, Ebisu and Nakameguro in Tokyo, on the search for inspirational denim. These areas are all walking distance from each other (if you like walking!) so wandering the small roads of Daikanyama or either side of the canal in Nakameguro is the best way to stumble across a denim treasure.

We visited the Denham store, which opened in 2010, and met manager and denim aficionado, Stephane Muller. We also fell in love with the F/W Ku-USA collection in their flagship based just further along the road from Denham, along with the tiny but perfectly formed UES, complete with a vintage Brother machine and sewing/ repairing work station.

A Stylesight favorite in Nakameguro is the Olgou store- they have plenty of French sateen-weave workwear in faded purple cast denims alongside many 1910-1940s pieces in beautifully worn yet wonderfully appealing condition. A very nicely edited selection and well worth a visit.

Blue Blue is another branch of The Hollywood Ranch Market company- this Nakameguro store opened a couple of years ago and the name speaks for itself: it’s an indigo-on-indigo dream of worker-meets-sailor-meets-hobo. We bought a F/W 11 catalogue and will be sharing the fantastic pictures very soon.

No visit to Nakameguro is complete without a stop by J’Antiques- the store oened by famed collecter Hitoshi Uchida that A Continuous Lean named “the best vintage store in the world” (although the exchange rate was not entirely in our favor).

Nigel Cabourn opened a shop here in 2009 called The Army Gym and we caught up with Kei Saito of Outer Limits (the company behind Cabourn as well as Heritage Research and Redux Jeans) for his tips. He took us to Balance, above- store of the famed Anachronorm Jeans label, where we met manager Tomi and discussed their store in Okayama- a must-visit Japanese destination.

We finished our journey in Ebisu where we stumbled across Kapital’s Duffel with Kapital and Kapital Legs stores while trying to find their two-story main Ebisu store. Such is the way it often is with these hidden Kapital outposts!

Nigel Cabourn

103 1-21-11 Aobadai Meguro-Ku 1530042 Tokyo JPN

Tel: 03.3770-2186

Olgou

Pine Village 100.1-10-6 Kamimegurp, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo JPN

Tel: 03.3463.0509

Kapital Ebisu

150-0022, 2-20-2 Ebisu 1F, Shibuya-ku Ebisu-Minami Gaillarde , Tokyo JPN

Tel :03.5725.3923

Balance

AK-BLD, B1F 1-15-1 Aobadai Meguro Ku Tokyo 153-0042 JPN

Tel: 03.5784.2669