PROFILE
Born in 1977. Director and vintage denim advisor of the long-established Harajuku vintage clothing store "Berberzine. Known as an authority on vintage denim, he is also involved in product development for "New Manual" and "YANUK. Based on his vast knowledge, he has published "THE 501®XX A COLLECTION OF VINTAGE JEANS", which focuses on 501®XX, and "Denim as an Education: Vintage Values as Discovered by the Japanese".
A book was the start of a honeymoon relationship with Levi's ®︎.
When did the relationship between Fujiwara-san and Levi's ®︎ start?
I was asked to help create "THE 501®XX A COLLECTION OF VINTAGE JEANS," which I published in 2015, and this was the beginning of a relationship with Mr. Uchida and designer Paul at the Levi's ®︎ headquarters.
In fact, at that time, Levi's (®︎) was focusing on collecting materials for the archive room in the U.S., and they had almost no original pieces from each period stored in the archive room. However, the publication of this book triggered a request to sell denim pieces from the periods mentioned in the book, and the relationship began when we found denim pieces from the "Fake Alpha" inventory and asked people who owned them to let them go back home. This was the beginning of our relationship.
-I am very happy to have been recognized by the original author of the book, and to work with him.
When I attended an event celebrating the 150th anniversary of 501®︎ at Levi's, I was allowed to enter the archive room, where shelves were built inside a huge safe, and a huge number of special vintages were stored.
In the 90's, I saw a magazine called "Boon VINTAGE: The History of Levi's Changes" and was upset that it was so small because it was so great. It was like a dream come true. It is a place that only a limited number of people, even the headquarters staff, are allowed to enter, and not many Japanese have been able to do so, so it was an honor.
-I had thought that Japanese brands were digging deeper into the vintage boom since it started in Japan, but that's not true.
There are many brands that are trying to reissue 501®︎XX, but one of Levi's®︎'s strengths is that they have a huge amount of archives and research in house. I've always been a fan of the vintage style. On top of that, I have a lot of experience in handling vintage items, so I think we can now play catch-up with each other based on a common worldview.
Since we deal in vintage products, we basically feel nothing but gratitude to "Levi's ®︎" for creating such wonderful products. I published this book because I really love denim, and I wanted to give something back to the people who have been pursuing it, so I wanted to tell them everything I know about it, and I want to help them as much as I can. I would like to share whatever I know, and I would like to cooperate as much as I can. I hope that this will lead to the development of "Levi's ®︎" by deepening our understanding of vintage.
