care-tags.org

I love clothes and I love shopping. Shopping for me, shopping for you, shopping for my friends who are tired of getting gifts from me. I love it. I even love window shopping (though I don't like shopping for windows). Here in Japan there are tons of great deals, cool items, and excellent clothes that are just sitting on the racks of secondhand stores and select shops, not being worn by anyone and certainly not being appreciated overseas. In order to right this injustice, I'm willing to send you a selection of carefully chosen Japanese clothes and goods for no reason other than I love sending people things.

Firstly and perhaps most importantly, I'm not looking to make money off this endeavor; the goal is simply to send cool clothes to people who wanna wear them. The only stipulation is that I don't want to spend my own money. You pay for the clothes, and you pay for the shipping, that's it. Simple! Chances are good I'll throw in a few extra things for fun, no charge.




How it works





What I can offer ya





Why?





About Me





Just So Ya Know





Lemme get to the point: I wanna send you cool things. It may sound crazy, but I inexplicably enjoy sending people cool stuff. It's not about me getting anything out of this; it's as fun for me to give as it may be for someone else to receive stuff. At the end of the day, I want this to be fun and fulfilling for everyone involved and I want everyone to come away from this with some hydrating new clothes/magazines/beauty products/Japanese tchotchkes. That's it, that's the goal. If you're interested please shoot me a PM! Anyone I've talked to through PMs already, my Paypal account is adswim@gmail.com. When you send the money, feel free to attach a little note with your wants and stuff. Make sure your shipping address is accurate and PLEASE include your Care-Tags username in the notes! I gotta keep organized somehow.

Thanks for looking!

Jake

Currently on the hunt for:

--on hiatus---

QUEUED
Xinijia

sent!!

- Spaceman
- young canoeist
- Copeland
- evilfriends/minkhoi
- loops
- lyysander
- anotherdayhere
- aliencomingin
- Illiam
- Yoder
- exprof
- ballast
- ASTROCHIMP (again!)
- mentalrigormortis
- dakaf_fal
- CMYK
- hugandwug
- Schiaparelli
- sick boy
- trichomatic
- odarek
- mrblahblahblacksheep
- taylorswift
- sludge
- coolteen49
- Vaeltaja
- PK!
- earthonator
- thelouisvuittonprawn
- bouquet
- Stolsdos
- Michaelmao
- alby

will be edited when more people join/packages are sent

quick reminder: when ya paypal the money please include your Care-Tags username and a brief summary of the stuff you're looking for! Makes it way easier on me.

and 's packages gettin sent out tomorrow!



Got lots of folks jumpin in so with some free time in the horizon I should be able to collect stuff for the packages relatively soon. Making some headway on everyone else's package and should hopefully be able to send out more right after the weekend.

Some updates: I sent out Alby, Michaelmao, and Stolsdos' packages! They should be there this week. Here's the bad news - I got screwed on shipping



Basically, although I thought I had a handle on the costs I still ended up paying over 16,000 yen in EMS shipping for the three packages. I just can't sustain those costs (if each package costs ~5000 yen to ship that's gonna cut the amount of money I can spend on most packages by almost half) and I unfortunately had to spend some of my own money covering costs. This is a real bummer because I thought I understand how to get costs down on packages. Guess not. From here out I'm gonna try to slim down these packages a bit - I'll be looking for lighter stuff, and although you will of course get more than your moneys worth (I guarantee that) I can't afford to stuff them full of stuff any more. Kinda disappointed, though fret not - your package will still be awesome and completely worth it, even if I have to drop my own money to get them out. On that note, any money you're willing to send me for shipping after I send your package out will be absolutely appreciated! If you have no more money for shipping I completely understand and you will get an excellent package either way. Shooting me a few extra bucks just helps me live a little less dangerously. For what it's worth, I'm shipping via EMS air mail, which takes a mere matter of days to reach you, as opposed to ground, which is a fraction of the cost but takes about 2-3 months.

Anyways, dreary stuff aside, the packages just keep coming. I've got three in the pipeline and I'm gonna hopefully have these done and ready to get sent out on Monday. I really do appreciate your patience and promise I haven't forgotten about anyone, I'm working through the packages as well as I can and there's quite a few!



Expect more updates in the next few days and get excited for your package! I'm finding some super cool stuff and I can't wait to send these all out. Feel free to dump some pictures in here when you get your package!

Also:
I made an instagram if you're into that. dunno how active I'll be but @trasparenti is me

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask people to pay for the shipping costs too; you spend your time finding all these cool garms to ship out, you shouldn't have to spend your own money for people

Transparenti do not spend your own money shipping stuff out. If you already promised people stuff fine fulfil the orders but in future do not spend your own money.

I feel like you should be charging an extra tenner on top just to cover your expenses. Train fare, coffees, shoe leather, none of this is free and you deserve remuneration.

You're both right, of course. Astrochimp mentioned something similar when I faced similar shipping woes with his packages but I thought I had this whole thing better understood. I've now shipped a grand total of 5 packages from Japan - including the 3 I just sent out the other day - so I'm still pretty new to shipping in Japan. I feel like I understand it a bit better currently but that's also what I thought last time.

My plan going forward is to message everyone the cost of shipping their package with the tracking number. If you've paid for the shipping in advance don't worry about it, and if you didn't feel free to shoot me some money. I knew I was going to lose at least a little bit of money on this operation but the gratification of cashing in on some of the sweet deals around here and sending people fuckin rad packages was the whole motivation in starting this up. For what it's worth my daily subway fees are recouped by my company (provided I only ride the subway to and from the city I work in) and on my days off I ride my bike. My living expenses aren't very high and I've got enough money in the bank in case I really need it. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to spend any of my own money here, but it is what it is at the end of the day and I knew what I was getting into.

I read your (Bela's) earlier rep message about adding a $10 personal fee onto each package to recoup my costs and the reason I didn't do that or ask for any finder's fees etc. is because I don't want this to feel like a job. It's pretty ridiculous but the second I start taking or receiving money for my services I'm concerned that I'll feel a greater pressure to complete the packages beyond any reasonable means in an effort to exceed the unspoken yet tangible expectations. Furthermore, as a show of appreciation for the trust everyone is showing me by sending over their hard-earned money, I was hoping to could keep the budgets for clothes and shipping low and not take anything for myself. I still want to avoid taking any for myself but I will probably need people to help out with the shipping costs after the packages are shipped out.

So to reiterate, don't worry, your packages are all gonna be stuffed with as many goodies as I can find within your budgets. Please help cover the shipping costs if need be, and of course I'm going to keep doing my best to find the best deals on the best items for you all because i luv ya

Sooooo good news and bad news.
My American bank account (which is where Paypal sends the money I receive for packages, so I can withdraw it at ATMs) isn't allowing me to withdraw money right now. Therefore, I couldn't ship today. To be fair, it's still the weekend in the states so there may be some problem they haven't worked out yet but it's pretty frustrating. I'm working on it and will have the packages out as soon as I can get money for shipping.

Good news is a I found an excellent new secondhand store in a nearby town and was able to pick up some excellent stuff for cheap and added some stuff to everyone's packages so maybe it wasn't so bad after all! Unfortunately because I couldn't get more out of the bank, I wasn't able to pick up as much stuff as I liked. There were a lot of excellent tees and jackets on sale, and the sales were way better than normal Japanese sales. Generally I see stuff on sale for ~20-40% off at most. Rarely 50-70%. This store had nearly everything marked down by 50-70%, probably because it's in the middle of nowhere. Anyways, working on shipping and will let everyone know when their stuff gets mailed out. Once they get mailed out I'll be picking up more stuff to finish up the other packages and getting them sent out soon. Thanks for waiting!

Alright, well I got my package today, note the extremely fast shipping.
really found some sick deals in for my haul.

Firstly, when I got the box, I opened it up and found a Porter Yoshida bag containing all the clothing, needless to say I was super excited about that. Up first was a badass sophnet. lightweight, corduroy jacket in brown; I realize now that brown looks pretty good on me(at least I think so). Turns out I have a white y's corduroy jacket in a very similar style, so I'm probably going to sell it and keep the sophnet. one.

Next was a Moonage Devilment t-shirt, to be honest I had never heard of the brand, but the tee is fucking cool so I assume it's "cool" haha.

Then I found an undercoverism long sleeve tee with some ribbed, extended shoulders, awesome shirt.
I pulled out a number nine tee after that, , and finally a white wtaps button down shirt in an oversized fit, and it looks rad as hell. Plus I really needed a cool white bd for the summer.

Overall absolutely excellent, I would do it again in a heartbeat, and thanks again Jake for the amazing garms. Best $100 I've probably spent in my life up to this point.
Included below is an imgur album with the clothing, a messy room, and couple fit pics.

Yoooo nice I'm stoked it got to you so fast! Looks sick mang, that Soph piece was a legitimately exciting find for me, the details are super cool (double RiRi front zip, arm pocket like a bomber jacket, etc.). Enjoy!



Today I shipped out a TON of stuff. Taylorswift's is going out tomorrow and then I'm getting to work on the rest. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about anyone. Aiming to ship more on Monday/Thursday of next week!



Will send you all tracking and shipping costs in a day or two. Luckily everyone's package this time came in around 5400 yen or so which wasn't too bad.
If you didn't already pay for shipping costs please send me your shipping payment asap once I send you the info! It really helps me out :--)

Got my stuff in too! there's some great stuff in here. pictured is a c.e button up, an ID Dailywear jacket, a steffie christiaeans shirt, a bedwin sweater, and a uc hat.

edit: actually you can't see the hat much in the picture haha

also got some arts+sciences pants that I'm currently wearing at the moment.



sadly some of this stuff is a bit too small for me, so i think it might be heading to my gf's closet haha. Absolutely great experience though, and I have the utmost appreciation for what you're doing for all of us!

Okay so my gf only wanted a few of the things that came in the package so i'm offering it up to anyone who is willing to pay shipping! Also interested in whatever size 4 or XL stuff you get in your package that might be too big or you may not like!

shipping shouldn't be too bad if you're in the states. i prefer to use priority flat rate slips and this stuff could easily fit in a small 7 buck slip!

steffie christiaeans shirt - Size 48





UC hat





C.E shirt - Size M





Cav shirt was claimed by window flowers! Sorry everyone who was interested!

all of that stuff can be shipped for $7 ?

I just have a fetish for clothes being laid out in natural light and postal packaging so I'm really enjoying this thread lol

Hoping most people get their packages this week, sent three out today. Nearly done with Schiaparelli's package, been looking for one thing for a week now. Sick Boy and CMYK are next up!

, did you get your package yet? I haven't checked tracking in a minute

Got my package today! 6 items came in (though customs says 7) All very cool and comfy things.

Images and such incoming...

Ignore my horrible fit today. Got about 3 hours of sleep (heh, pi day) and I'm going to be at work for 8 hours.

First off, got a nice note from Trasparenti. Very cool dude. The theme of this package was gothninja to peasant lolita. Basically goth mori.

Onto the images...

Long sleeve sweater? shirt? something? No tags whatsoever, and looks nearly reversible. In fact, I'm actually wearing this inside out from how he shipped it to me because it was a bit less seam-y. Raw hems everywhere and very comfy loops. White and black threads. EDIT: SCIENCE ALL UP IN THIS..! It's a sweater by Label Under Construction.





The Viridi-Anne cropped pants. Huge in the thighs and nicely tapered at the ankle-ish area. fits a couple inches above the ankles with the cuffs up and more flood-like if I wear them cuffs down. I need good (read: thick) no-show socks so I can wear these with derbies... or just awesome sandals. More of medium/charcoal grey color in real life.



Trove 4-button "blazer." They call it the 'smooth jkt' officially. 80% wool, 20% silk, 100% comfy. Vaguely in the realm of knit jackets, I guess. No arm buttons, slightly exposed lining. Simultaneously slouchy and fitted. It's a soft grey, probably what one might call 'beige grey' or 'brown grey'



Trove 1-button blazer. Cotton/rayon blend partially lined in tencel. Basically the epitomy of an unstructured blazer. Toss it in the bag and wear it around. Functional button cuffs. Actually black.



Nude: MM cardigan. Quite a bit looser than the image suggests. Two snap-style buttons at the bottom. Fairly heavy linen, texture reminds me of my YYPH shorts. The best part about this? We've been talking about this cardigan for a couple months now. A dark black color.





Shellac washed black denim jeans. 97% some really faded and complicated looking character. Probably cotton, and 3% polyester. Very, very comfy. If you guys have noticed from my fitpics, I basically never wear denim. These are super comfy. They stretch sort of my a pair of jeggings. Conceptually, these guys remind me of Number (N)ine, or perhaps a Julius. Shellac is very underrated in the "dark fashion" market. Lots of details like a little d-ring and a cargo pocket that uses a RiRi M6(!!) zipper. The paneling confuses me. It's sort of a shifted side-seam, I guess. Pretty large in the thighs (mild drop crotch?) and pretty skinny in the ankles.



Also got a silly little Cyberdyne ad


All in all, super great stuff. Would do again. Thanks!

Mine arrived today (!!!)

Came in a nice box labelled "egg"




The goods:


And a nice note and a couple coins


Big thanks to and Im looking forward to doing another round when I have some extra cash again. I think the results speak for themselves (:

Sorry for the nightmare-quality photos, but I was super pumped to get my package today!




The first thing I found was this book nice of cat photos!!



Then this cool jieda shirt, which is cut like a tent



This shawl-esque thing from a brand called Commono Reproducts



A pair of facetasm cords and a tee from miharayasuhiro denim



A shirt with a removable pocket from mercibeaucoup



And finally a pair of trousers from green label relaxing, which I thought at first were cropped but then realized they were just incredibly small on me



The trousers and the mercibeaucoup shirt didn't really fit me, so anyone who generally wears small/extra-small can have them for the price of shipping.

This is all insanely cool, and even if I never wear any of it it was worth just for the fun of getting the package. Thanks so much to for doing all this!

edit: was the first person to ask, so he's got dibs on the shirt. The pants are still available though
they're dark gray/charcol

i too recieved a package!! i just sent the shipping payment!



nice big and crinkled bag.lots of bags!! i wonder whats inside!!



oh wait i alrady know whats gonna be inside because i specifically asked for ...PANTS!!! this one is a gung ho pair of fatigue pants which fit perfectly, this is specifically what i asked for and am satistfied





heres a hot note i didnt find until later. shipping was pretty expensive but WORTH it



these very light and slightly stretchy pants are really cool and they have an incredible front and back pocket detailing. AND cuff detailing





AND finally the generous transparenti sent these heavy crazy cool corduroy "mix between work pants and bondage punk pants"






family pictures



either ms bondagey workwear was being shy or i couldnt get her inthe frame, you pick



found a one yen piece (its very light) in the bondage pants im going to buy a boat with it (SORRY for the feline nails)





THANKS so much transparenti !!

this is so great, thanks a million
the bape shirt, the number (n)ine tee and the cropped trousers are all super excellent
i've got a freind who's a big fan of sonic youth, so i'm going to gift him that shirt
the cardigan, puffy jacket and striped shirt are unfortunately too small for me but will shortly find homes in the wardrobes of friends and family (in fact my mother has claimed the puffy jacket already)
once again, thanks @transparenti , i'd order one of these every month if i could

My package came today! Apologies for the phone pictures.

What I got:

A box














Overall I got some really great stuff that I wouldn't be able to get (or wouldn't think to get) otherwise. Huge thanks to trasparenti!

My package came in today! It arrived in a box for oranges, which was very cute. Thanks transparenti for including me in this, still so super stoked, and happy to try out some new stuff.

We should set up a thread to trade/gift the stuff that we got in packages that didn't fit us. I got a couple things that didn't fit that I would love to pass on to someone who would wear them as it seems most others did as well.

Yeah if you wanna set up trades/sales here go for it. I'm really sorry about the sizing mistakes, it's completely my fault. I'm new to finding clothes that fit people who aren't me so I'm still learning. I've been actively trying to get the sizing right since I started and every time someone mentions a mistake I made I make a little note for the future. I think I'm getting closer to as good as possible with each package. At the very least, I'm trying to stretch the budgets and send out as much as I can so that there's more stuff that fits than the small stuff. Again, sorry, and thanks to everyone for being so cool.

dear :

can i send YOU a fun-time mystery care pack? because you deserve one!

I am the newest victim of the Tras-Pacific Care Package For Cultural Exchange and Other Good Things Foundation.




I gave few instructions. 1) very rarely do pants from japan fit me. 2) I am looking for the perfect pair of cropped pants. 3) i like plaid on my pants. 4) i'm a size 4 in undercover. 5) I like weird shit but not like, SUPER weird shit - i want to be able to wear the clothes. Boy, did he deliver.

First, the pants:


The pair on the left are this gorgeous cotton linen blend with a neat little cinch on the back. Hey, the grosgrain at the fly looks kinda like sacai. Hey, these are sacai pants. Holy shit, they're great.

The middle pair are Digawel pants. They have a tear at the pocket that I didn't notice until I read trasparenti's note, wherein he mentions that they were 'on him,' which is bogus since they're perfectly fine and are like, the ultimate beach pant. These are what I wanted the uniqlo easy pants that they just released to be (those are like leggings, whereas these are like wearing two large, lightweight pipes). Very cool.

The right pair are . great gingham fabric, but incredibly high rise, or incredibly dropped crotch, or both. I can't tell. A little trim in the waist for me (but they've got ample pleats!) and the low crotch actually makes 'them a little difficult to walk in. nice cut through the legs and good cuffs.



Next out came a sweater from AKM. Gray cotton with a generous boat neck, I can't tell if it makes me look femme or a like a sex-haver. Why not both? Trim through the arms but not unwearable.



Now a jacket from appropriately named brand . Has a funny li'l three-roll-two press, but it's actually just a two button jacket. Neat effect. It also has the all-important kangaroo pockets instead of patch or jetted pockets. I don't know why more brands haven't latched on to this design feature, because it's fucking awesome. The reinforcement at the pocket entrance actually matches a pair of pants I have in a similar color. I will try to make a fake suit out of it.



Another jacket, from Wastetwice. This is the big tragedy of this package. Wastetwice was one of the first 'underground' japanese brands whose wares i coveted, and with this, it appears to be with good reason. Cool jacket wih gold thread woven into the plaid, beautiful buttons with matching tiny functional cuff buttons on the side, this thing is simply too small for me. It's going into the "pass on to someone else" pile because I can't trust myself to starve myself.



A black denim vest from phenomenon. Something I'd never but for myself but would be glad to have, this thing has all the fixin's for me to live out my Joe Strummer cosplay fantasies. eyelets studded around the shoulder and a quilted, deconstructed back panel, a really rad tag, this thing is on the fence for too small for me. I mean, I know it's too small for me, I can't button it up, but I wonder if I can fake my way through it...



A sophnet 3/4 sleeve sweatshirt. This thing is soft as hell and right up my alley. Nothing particularly notable about it compared to some of the weird stuff that's popped out of this box, but very easy to slot into any wardrobe. Like, say, mine.



A nonnative tee, again on the fence about too small as it's a size 1 and I'm normally a 3 in nonnative. It fits on my body but the shoulders are tight, but you can get away with tightness in tees. Massive tag on the back, shows of my muskels.



It all came in this heavy canvas porter tote, just like the kind I've been eyeing and would've paid $700 gazillion fucking dollars for if it said undercover on it somewhere. Definitely going into the Bag Rotation.


oh yeah, there was this hat, too. See ya!

Just wondering, how much do people usually spend?

I received my package about a week ago and haven't had times to take pictures of all that I've received. My package was super neat and has a lot of cool stuff in it. I received a few magazines and pamphlets as well, which I didn't take any pictures of.


The first and my personal favorite thing that I received was this linen indigo/navy light coat. The buttons have an incredible feel to them and they jacket is very breezy and light.





Next up is a lab-esque coat from Porter Classic. Again, amazing detail in the buttons and the construction is great. Both of these jackets fit me great and will definitely be wearing them.




Next up are two Blue blue shirts. A long sleeve and a short sleeve. Both are very cool, however are not the best fitting on me. I can fit into the long sleeve and will probably wear it, however I cannot fit into the short sleeve, so if you are interested, let me know.





Next up is a pair of Yaeca pants. I am so, so sad that these do not fit me. They fit probably a 31-(slim)32 best. The pants fit very weirdly, they are very roomy in the thighs and waist with an extreme taper and are semi-cropped. So cool. So sad these don't work. Great details with the buttons and the latch. Coin pocket as well. Also, they are incredibly soft for being cotton trousers.




Next up is a shirt from the brand A VONTADE, which is super cool but also does not fit me :( Also sad about this one.





Finally, a cute little latch belt. This is a tad too small for me but works for my girlfriend, and she needed a new belt so it was good timing!


Thank you very much Transparenti for doing this. I am very humbled and happy with my package, and I am sure everyone is very thankful you would provide such a service.

edit : those interested in anything for trades for things that don't fit me from other packages or clothes you own (not wanting to sell anything) PM me and we will work something out (smiling)