Japanophiles in Heavy Denim: Online Menswear Communities’ Veneration of Japanese Denim, Workwear and Military Reproduction Clothing

This paper looks at the veneration of Japanese reproduction brands within English-speaking online menswear communities. It is based on an online ethnography of these communities and in-depth interviews with men who participate in them. Beginning with a genealogy of Japanese menswear, this paper explains how American style came to influence Japanese clothing consumers and producers during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The focus here is on changing class meanings with blue-collar American men’s jeans and military surplus clothing becoming sought-after luxury commodities in the Japanese second-hand market. This paper then turns its attention to contemporary transnational consumption practices, detailing how expensive Japanese imports bestow ‘subcultural capital’ (Thornton, 1996) within online menswear communities. To the uninformed outsider, Japanese jeans, flight jackets and work boots are indistinguishable from the cheaper, contemporary versions worn by huge numbers of men around the world. But within online menswear communities, the craftsmanship, high price point, and rarity of these Japanese clothes make them akin to luxury garments. This paper concludes by problematizing the orientalist assumptions implicit in the fetishizing of Japanese craftsmanship.