Visvim

[hirokinakamura]

[hirokinakamura]

Prices r too low hiroki-sama

[CheerUpBrokeBoy]

i could listen to hiroki say "corduroy" all day

[ramdomthought]

what makes visvim so interesting to so many people? i love the stuff but it's always boggled me how it has gotten picked up by the certain segment of hypebeasts.

what's the appeal to the non-americana-inspired fan

what makes the shoes special

potential for a great thread thanks zach (smiling)

[harmsalmon]

am I correct in often thinking of visvim as a slightly more wearable version of kapital

[Yoder]

Does that make kapital a much cooler version of visvim?

[Yoder]

Something being more/less wearable doesn't have anything to do with the coolness, I was merely expounding on the presumed relationship between the brand, but I appreciate the salt.

OT, are there comparative reviews of visvim out there to make the prices more relative? What brands fill a similar niche or fit in with the visvim image? Do people like John Mayer that wear the brand exclusively do so because of how cohesive it is, or are there other factors? Is vis a status symbol as hinted at in some rep comments here?

[starfox64]

[Chimpskibot]

I'm in it love visvim
Currently beating the hell out of my yucca moc mid boots, and Lhamos.

[kyung]

[bels]

Feel like whenever I see someone wearing all visvim it's a really unvisvim looking outfit.

Like elmendorf albacore chinos virgils which is a minor variation on a look that infinite brands put out at infinite price points.

Is wizwim as big in Japan I wonder? I know there are plenty of euro/na brands that get big play in Japan.

[Chimpskibot]

[CheerUpBrokeBoy]

[schiaparelli]

i'm very excited for this thread, thanks for kicking it off!

for a long time i wasn't too interested in japanese americana—tbh it often feels a bit too insular, the same ideas being recycled again and again—but i've been seeing some interesting editorials and outfits that have put visvim in a new light. i also frequently come back to these images from their bc i feel they articulate a look that feels rare in womenswear: this charming/innocent/prairie homestead/mori girl/wholesome look that feels very easy and delicate without being precious.

[kyung]

that time vis made a goretex car cover

[ramseames]

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/37400394[/vimeo]

(for some reason this link plays it twice lol)

[nick]

There's an intangible "cool" factor in editorials of visvim I've seen where it all comes together in such a great way. I wonder what it is - what is the "it" factor that makes it a brand people completely buy into? Is there an appeal in the world of visvim? It about the clothes? The accessibility mixed with exclusivity? This goes back to ramdom and starfox's question. With say, EG, sure you can buy an OCBD, chinos, and a blazer, but the look is distinctive and is an immediate signifier. Would you say the same for Visvim?

Their footwear is excellent though. Looking for "visvim alternatives" in that department is just selling yourself short if the visvim look is exactly what you want. Love the denim washes too.

[Lorcan]

I think a big part of Visvim's appeal is the fabrics. Its the denim designed 'from the yarn up' or the custom herringbone intended to give more pronounced diagonals and texture. The natural dyes (natural indigo, mud dye, persimmon, etc.) and the washes. I only have one Vis piece (kerchief tunic shirt in light indigo linen) and the fabric is crazy on that (irregular texture, small variations in colour from the dyeing and washing). It helped me understand how dudes get hooked on the stuff.

Visvim also puts in a lot of effort to all the peripheral stuff to try and make it feel special: the packaging, naming pieces after movie characters / artists, the F.I.L. store design, Hiroki himself as walking advertisement for the brand - it all adds to the hype and appeal I guess. Though personally I find a lot of it a turn-off (calling the collections "dissertations" always seemed both kind of corny and a bit pretentious to me). I think there's still a lot to like if you can get past all the trappings and celebrity hype, and there's a bunch of pieces I'd love to own (Hendee trenchcoat, artifact coverall, Sanjuro kimono, whymper and brigadier boots).

[ramseames]

Is there that much celebrity Hype though?

Like celebrities who wear vis on the reg/are known for it are Kanye, who just wears fbts and a noragi or lhamo that one time, Eric Clapton, who is cool but not in the same way, and mayer, who's fan base is totally unaware of this other than thinking that he dresses weird now.

Maybe there's others I'm forgetting but I don't feel like this is what drives the brands growth at all.

[can-]

visvim be the sneaker

[Lorcan]

@ramseamses

I'm pretty sure A$ap Rocky, Pharrell, Rihanna, probably more I forget have all been pictured wearing it at some time.

I think the point which I didn't really articulate, is that you can't escape the celebrity connection with Visvim whether you like it or not. Mayer is mentioned or pictures of him posted pretty regularly throughout the Visvim threads on Sufu. Or for example, if you go on Visvim's own website, on the page on Social Sculpture denim there's a long quote from Clapton. I think they put a pair of his jeans on display at one of the FIL stores recently too.

I don't think the celebrity endorsement necessarily pushes sales in a direct manner, like someone buys something because X person wore that specific item or whatever, but I think it helps contribute to this aura that its supposed to be some special / desirable shit in a more general way.

[ramseames]

[CheerUpBrokeBoy]

i have a hypothesis that brands with charismatic media-friendly lead designers/founders have a much more loyal fanbase than brands that don't - e.g. Hiroki, Rick, Errolson Hugh, Jun, Tom Ford (though his clothes aren't different/"groundbreaking"), Karl Lagerfeld (even though he's an ass and he dresses like a vampire). Bonus points if the designer only wears his(/her) brand's clothes, like Hiroki does. so that might be part of it

side note: i went into Maas and Stacks in SF a little while ago, and they stock Ervell/Nonnative/CP/Rafdidas in the front and Visvim/Hender Scheme in an ENTIRELY different room in the back. like a tiny room just for those two brands (which they don't stock online). the SAs were clearly Vis fanboys and they explained that it was amazing clothing because of the "story behind it". pretty pretentious, but smart on Hiroki's part: flipping heritage clothing into a narrative that attracts a cult following based on the *idea* of the clothes

[CheerUpBrokeBoy]

upon reflection and going back to their website, I retract any inflammatory statements regarding the fine people at Maas & Stacks

pls hook me up with a job there

[hirokinakamura]

Maas n stacks is dope

As for the whole cult of visvim thing, it's pretty ambiguous. The hypebeast part that ramdom mentioned is almost entirely due to vis' celebrity following. You look at hypebeast forum or KTT shit on visvim and its a bunch of dudes talking about how dope the shoes Kanye wore are or how john mayer is swagging out in vis fucking half of the eligible pussy in hollywood. But i think what's far more interesting is the other point everyone was raising, how visvim manages a cult following at its price level. I mean, this is not remotely cheap and you look at dudes on fuk and they're just wearing head2toe vis. For those of us that are not stupid wealthy FOB chinese dudes, an outfit like the one bela mentions "elmendorf albacore chinos virgils" is going to run you somewhere around $5000 at retail. That's not chump change. Yet there are plenty of ppl that post fit pics like that, sometimes wearing even more expensive shit. I've seen dudes wearing like, fucking gore-tex Valdez with grizzly boots. It's easier, I think, to conceptualise how people spend $1k on a pair of rick sneakers or A1923 boots or something, than it is to do the same with visvim.

Vis is, at its heart, just another japanese take on americana. Certainly hiroki has distinguished the brand from all others but still, there's a reason visvim has boots named after steven mcqueen's character in the Great Escape (virgils AND hilts) and deniro's in Taxi Driver (bickle m-65) and robert duvall in apocalypse now (kilgore jacket) and honus wagner (honus cap lmao) and all the obvious native american shit going on (seminole this, cochise that, blah blah blah) and so on and so forth. It's all about classic America. Visvim just seems to possess this sort of je nes sais quoi that creates the kind of following that you'll never remotely find with any similar brand (as ramseames put it, you dont ever seen anyone in head2toe nonnative). Can't put my finger on what exactly it is. It could be the whole charismatic designer thing, it could be the way vis tries to make everything feel special, it could be the exclusivity/limited availability/price-level/lack of substitutes, or it could be some other intangible shit. The only thing I know for sure is that I fucking love visvim.

Also as a sidenote, the other day I got to meet/chill with the Hitoshi Tsujimoto, the guy who owns the Real McCoys (and a whole bunch of other brands under the NYLON Co. umbrella) and the dude loves visvim. He was wearing this amazing vintage orange cashmere Hermes duffel coat with washed denim and grizzlys and he looked fucking awesome. Classic old-school Japanese guy, drinks and smokes like fucking Sinatra and talks about all the girls he used to fuck lmao.

[can-]

what about all the visvim that isnt really americana? this is mostly the stuff with a serious technical bent like their bag ranges, christos, and some of their more aggressive shells.


i think a big reason visvim has the appeal it does versus other brands making garms that are just as "alive" like 45rpm, kapital and LVC is because visvim clothes are generally still quite on trend with styling and fit etc.

[kyung]

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2015/0 ... w-new.html

[starfox64]

[Vaeltaja]

Fan of how Appleseed throws Visvim with other brands. He seems to be more of a fan of the techwear aspect of Visvim than the Americana side.

[ramseames]

http://www.thirdlooks.com/2015/02/visvi ... n-preview/

Serras are back(!)

Either the thirdlooks guy doesn't know of foleys or there's a new ~minimal~ sneaker silhouette