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Kapital is a beast of a brand. To me they are similar to companies like Cosmic Wonder Light Source and Bless in that it’s not a designer’s vision of “the ____ man/woman” that’s being presented or sold to you. Kapital is the country house of a curious family that you visit in the fall to see all the wonderful projects they make together, and to be a part of that creative experience.

Go on to the Kapital webstore (found here: http://www.kapital.jp/e-store/) and try to not fall in love with at least one item. The breadth of their creations is staggering for a brand that has so little international presence. There are international and US stockists, yes, but their buys are often conservative and fail to truly capture the imagination of a brand like Kapital.

Designwise, Kapital draws flintstone from similar sources as Hiroki Nakamura’s Visvim, drawing prominently from Native American and American hippy cultures, as well as the occasional prep influence. This is a company for which the devil is not only in the details – pieces feature incredibly unique overall design while still retaining incredible depth in the details.

There’s information out there about this brand if you can find it, but I’ve tried to condense it here for you. Much of this information is distilled from Kapital’s own site and the blog The Bandana Almanac, found here: http://bandanna-almanac.com/. Hope you enjoy!

History



(What follows is a summary of the interview that will be posted underneath it. For more details – which I would really, encourage, it’s a great read – skip my words and go right to the source.)

Kapital was created 30 years ago by Toshikiyo Hirata after working at a denim company for 9 years making copies of Levi’s jeans. He decided he wanted to make better jeans than Levi’s, and this small desire was the impetus for the brand. Toshikiyo started the company as an OEM business due to lack of funds, which essentially means that Kapital would add a few details to products other companies made and sell those. Eventually Toshikiyo got frustrated with this approach and began hiring designers and creating their own products.

Kapital in its modern form didn’t truly exist until Toshikiyo’s son, Kiro Hirata, came on board as a designer. He had watched his father create clothes since he was born, and he brought a radical new design approach to the company, changing everything about the way they manufactured and what kind of clothes they produced. Now Toshikiyo handles much of the business side, and the interplay between the two is what makes Kapital so special.

Full Interview:

Denim/Century

Denim is the heart of Kapital, what the business was founded on and perhaps its most accessible product. Their denim offerings come in two lines, Standard and Century, and these help display the different approaches of Toshikiyo and Kiro Hirata. Kapital denim is offered in six main cuts, with many variations: TH, Cisco, Stone, Okabilly, Cactus, and Pierrot. Info on cuts can be found here: http://kapital.jp/kapital-denim-guide/.

Kapital’s Standard denim line contains its oldest offerings, the backbone of the company. This denim is all one washed per Toshikiyo’s ideology, believing that one wash allows the perfect balance for the flexibility of cotton and the desire to have the product maintain form and function as intended for as long as possible.

Century denim is Kiro’s brainchild, and was introduced fairly recently. These jeans are raw rather than one washed to allow for more growth for denim and consumer as their relationship continues. The quickest difference you’ll notice between Standard and Century denim is that Century denim is woven with both cotton and indigo sashiko threads, giving an incredibly unique texture.





[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/56957498[/vimeo]

Eric Kvatek & Kapital World

Eric Kvatek is an undeniable part of Kapital’s aesthetic. He is a photographer who forged a 15-year-long friendship with Kiro Hirata, who he met while shooting for 45rpm, then styled by Hirata. Kvatek is the photographer for all of Kapital’s lookbooks, and was heavily featured in the film Kapital World, a film detailing the process of shooting the Spring 2014 Kapital lookbook “Sailor Ninja” in France, directed by Hsiang Chin Moe, a New York artist.

Trailer for Kapital World:

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/86780025[/vimeo]

Website:

http://www.kapitalworldmovie.com/#home

Interview with Eric Kvatek detailing his personal history and his relationship with Kapital, found on blog StyleSight (blog.stylesight.com/denim):

Kountry

The aspect of Kapital that is often most immediately striking to new eyes is the Kountry line, due to its heavy use of distressed fabrics, boro cloth, patching and repairs. The Kountry line is also a relatively recent aspect of the brand and is designed by Kiro Hirata and a team of others (can’t find their names, sorry). All of the Kountry clothing is made in Kapital’s Kountry factory.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.











(soft washing machine)



(over-dying machine)





(drying machine)













(all buttons are distressed/aged in-house)













(company president Toshikiyo Hirata)





The illustrious design team:

I'll be posting product shots, lookbooks, videos, and other content from time to time. Feel free to jump in!

Kapital's latest offering, Spring 2014's "Sailor Ninja":







































GUHH. Just incredible.

nn

Beautiful picture! Where'd you handle their clothing?

Kapital Spring 2014 Basic Collection debuted on children's toys:

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/90176461[/vimeo]

Kapital green denim grows up!

Original:



Original + lengthy love & Kountry craftsmanship:

Y'all want some updates on Kapital?

TOO BAD

(These are for )



Kapital's now got sunglasses! They trap indigo fabrics inside the glass frames to create the lovely texture & detail.













dat arm detail deaux



New run of cotton/linen fabrics & garments looking to mix Japanese boro with European "white work" (not sure what they mean by that). Check some of these out though:



(they have women's too)







And for your summer white jeans needs:



i'm shilling so hard right now

Also, for :

Some women's fits from the Summer 2014 collection "Denim Men Love Cats":













Somebody x-post that to the hair thread

I became seriously curious about Kapital when the FW14 lookbook came out. I was blown away by the scenery, clothes, particularly the colors... and the girls in the lookbook were super attractive and wearing awesome stuff as well... but anyways, I started looking online occasionally to see if I could find anything in my size (as with lots of jp clothes there's an abundance of small or medium sizes that won't fit me) and eventually came upon this jacket, which looked like it could work. It was a gamble, and not really in stylistic line with the other clothes I'd been experimenting with, but I decided to try it since the asymmetrical patchwork sleeves looked really cool...


Now that it's warm enough to wear it, I fucking love this thing as both an aesthetic object and a piece of clothing... a long time ago I read somewhere (SF?) a post discussing how Yohji's clothes make you feel like you're putting on something completely natural, that feels like you've worn it your whole life. I never felt that way about the Yohji clothes I have had, but this jacket has a strong feel like that. The patchwork around the one elbow and the other cuff is absolutely stunning and avoids obvious categorization; it's 'cute' without being 'cutesy' which I really appreciate, and also the cuteness is relegated to a detail rather than being overwhelming. There are several different patterns/colors of patchwork quilt patches and it feels like each diamond is a psychedelic window into another world, yet it all works very well together. Also, there's a part where the indigo(?) dye has worn off a bit onto the surrounding cream fabric, which is so cool.

From a personal perspective, the colors fit seamlessly with the colors of my skin/hair/eyes. I usually find it difficult to find good light blue items that don't look either oversaturated or cheap... or aren't OCBDs or denim jackets. Most of all, though, the fabrics of this Kapital jacket are so soft, light, and breathable. It's shit in the wind--I've gotten spoiled on synthetics and have come to expect windbreaking--but that's ok and even adds to the charm a little. Yes. Charming is a good way to describe this garment. It is a little big in areas but not damningly so, and my monkey arms, like a Houstonite encountering snow for the first time while on vacation, were shocked to find that the sleeves are actually too long and must be rolled up. *shrug* I'll mark it up to charm.

I've seen denim jackets of the exact same style by Kapital (same pocket location and cut, just somewhat faded standard denim and no patchwork) while poking around online. If anyone happens to know details about what year this might be from, or other info about it, I gladly welcome it since I'm not at all knowledgeable about the brand beyond liking their stuff.

here's a quick poor quality fitpic. thanks for reading!

OH HEY we have a Kapital thread here! Easily one of my top brands, most everything they do is really cool and I fanboy over their stuff hard. I've got a fair amount of stuff from them so far and looking to get more soon. Honestly I think I'd be comfortable dressing in 100% Kapital, even their more strange pieces I feel totally comfortable wearing.
Favorite item I own is a flannel shirt, it's insanely comfortable and soft, and it has this weird kimono-buttoning thing where you can button it diagonally and it fits normal but looks odd, or if you wear it open its super billowy from the cut.


Newest piece i bought is this long version of the ring coat. It's so much fun to just play around with different configurations of wearing it. It's just about 4 feet long! Here's a pic:



Here's a pic of the shirt, as well as older fits of it being worn open and closed. Also more Kapital in these so its fitting for the thread (century denim and sarouel trous)

Picked up a pair of Kapital's Okabilly denim in 14oz one wash recently. Okabilly is their skinniest fit, lower crotch but slim all throughout. I dig the fit, no pics yet cause i need to get them hemmed. Few differences from the century denim I own: the button is a clean brass button with their branding on it, whereas century denim has antiqued nickel buttons. The leather patches are different fonts, I think I dig the Okabilly's whimsical looking font a bit more. The okabillys also have some weird "half-selvedge" as the webshop put it which just looks like they're extremely hairy. IDK much about denim so I have no idea what "half selvedge" is really.





I also grabbed this Kapital shop coat, which is a pretty cool cotton herringbone fabric in this like orange-ish pink-ish color with thin green stripes. It's belted but I'm gonna chop that off because it looks better open

I have a $285 voucher for havenshop because I had to return some shoes, I can't find anything to spend it on and am now seriously considering blowing it all on Kapital socks

Not letting me edit my post for w/e reason

I got them from Pancho and Lefty! Highly recommend them, not the best selection but if youre in the US the conversion rate and subtraction of VAT at checkout makes their Kapital cheaper than proxying for most things. This stuff went on sale and was super cheap too, I got the jeans and coat and some cute accessories for like under 200

your guess is as good as mine tbh. could be absolutely nothing. VFD is usually volunteer fire department but idk what the C would be for

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/129292536[/vimeo]

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/131994190[/vimeo]

...in case yall havent seen this yet. runway starts at 17:40

I didn't realize there was a Kapital store in Nagoya even tho I walked by it a million times. The sign is really discreet so I always missed it.
Sorry the pictures are so blurry, I forgot that if you try to take pictures while moving my camera completely destroys the quality.



Tons of amazing Kountry stuff for men, women, childs, etc. So much boro and wonky stuff. Cool buttons, hand-painted and hand-distressed details, vintage baubles, patchwork and sashiko - the works. I'm saving for a trip to Tokyo but I could go wild in that store if I wanted to, sooo much cool stuff. Everything was there: shoes, shirts, jackets, shackets, skirts, coats, belts, socks, leathers, suede jackets, boots, scarves, hats, blankets, glasses, bracelets, overalls, vests - literally every imaginable item of clothing or accessory has been done by Kapital in every conceivable manner. They even had tchotchkes! The store also has a fully stocked sewing and repair station equipped with limitless amounts of thread, buttons and more. Pretty sure the staff actually produces some of the boro stuff in-house, which I imagine is the case for every Kapital store (but I dunno).

At the end of the album are two books I picked up. I had to get something, and the socks were a little too pricey. The books are super substantial, full-color and glossy and yet they only cost a mere $3 apiece. One is the current collection and the other one is a lookbook of Kountry stuff. Each collection must be massive if all the stuff in there now is current season; the shop is two stories and it's packed with clothes. I loved the way it was set up, actually; it's like a big warehouse with vintage clothes piled up and around, except the clothes aren't actually vintage and they're all amazing and expensive.

the century denim is awesome, but even better in person. just recently got a pair and i love them. i showed my apparel and human behavior professor (who i also took intro to textiles last semester with) and she went crazy haha. they're also raw so it'll be cool to watch them fade

Bonobonobo put me onto Kapital and I've only looked at a bit of it, but wow I'm in love.

Can't wait for more updates and hopefully to contribute more sometime soon.

Thank you for all of this great information!

just got a pair of the century denim _ definitely size up, I am normally a 30 and I found that the 32 was most comfortable. They shrank significantly when I washed them.

How do ringu coats fit? I guess at 5'10 I probably want a size 2 not a size 3?

maybe knows

My guess would be that you want a size 3, size 2 in most Kapital is made for a true men's small. It's a little tricky with the ring coat because you're basically sizing for sleeve length. I had a conversation with Rue from Cotton Sheep about Kapital sizing when I was in San Francisco last year. He said that their sizing is intentionally made to be consistent across the entire line (i.e. if you wear a size 3 in shirts, you probably wear a size 3 in everything else too).

fair enough, on further investigation it even has casual tie synergy