Amvai, a men's fashion media site that seeks out and promotes items that are "just right"—neither "safe" nor "irrelevant"—stands out for its members, the AMVARs, who are discerning and knowledgeable about everything. As part of a collaboration between Amvai and Isetan Men's Net, they conducted interviews with three designers from three brands handled at Men's Authentic on the 7th floor Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building . The theme is "Exploring the Fashion Philosophies of Masters Through Classic Books." From the answers to why a particular book resonated with them , the interviews unravel the present, past, and future of the designers.



Hirofumi Yamashita, the designer of MOJITO , was born in Kumamoto in 1968. After graduating from a fashion design school in Tokyo, he worked as a stylist's assistant before joining the legendary Harajuku shop "PROPELLER" as a part-time employee. He then became independent in 2005 and launched his own brand, MOJITO, in 2010.
"What I like about America is its dynamism and the interesting way it adapts things. Rugby from England became American football, and motorcycle racing became motocross, for example. They're really good at adapting things. I'm drawn to the culture, including American customs," he says.

There is always a message behind complicated clothing.

In this series of fashion insights from Shibata 's renowned works, the third fashion expert we'll be featuring is Hirofumi Yamashita, who is also an evangelist of the American novelist Ernest Hemingway.
Kenichi Kusano of KENNETH FIELD selected books from his travels in India , and Manabu Kobayashi of AUBERGE chose books from the major trends in fashion from the postwar period to the 1970s and up to the present day . We will also ask Yamashita to share some of the fundamental ideas that are currently on his mind.

We started carrying Yamashita-san's clothing after being introduced to him by Kusano-san. I still remember the first time I saw him at an exhibition, when he showed me the Ritz jacket and explained that "this dart embodies the image of Hemingway standing at the bar counter of the Ritz Hotel in Paris." I was so moved that I immediately placed an order.

It's fascinating how adding a worldview to a design creates an original story. The brands we carry on the 7th floor are among the most complicated in Japan, but Mojito, including the designer's personality, is a prime example of that complexity (laughs).
What Mr. Yamashita brought with him were two copies of the magazine "Popeye" from 1983.

The golden age of DC brands. It all started here.

Yamashita Shibata-san called me over, and I brought two books: the September 25, 1983 issue of "Autumn's 'Handsome Man' Special: Popeye's Fashion Help File" and the December 25, 1983 issue of "I Want to Live with a Girl." 1983 was an incredible year for me when I was 15, and it has become the backbone of who I am today.

Shibata: Oh, Yamashita-san, you're also publishing two books, huh? (laughs) Everyone at Amber is really connected at their core!
Ms. Kobayashi's book was also a two-volume set (lol).

Yamashita : When I was 15, I decided, "I'm going to make a living in the fashion industry!" So I was working hard to gather all sorts of information, and it was the heyday of designer brands. I devoured the Popeye magazine that arrived in Kumamoto a day or two after its release, and these two issues of Popeye became the catalyst for me to "learn about the real thing."

I've loved clothes since I was a child, and I used to do things like altering them myself, or carving into belts with a carving knife, gradually adding my own personal touches. I also used to buy designer clothes at the boutique "Blaze" in Kumamoto City and in Amakusa, my hometown.


I still vividly remember the first time I saw the fashion pages in the December 25th issue of Yamashita magazine. The outfits—a denim jacket with all the buttons fastened, tight-fitting jeans with a bit of boxer shorts peeking out from the back, a flannel shirt under a deck jacket with a white T-shirt peeking out, a hunting-motif houndstooth jacket with a vest, a chambray shirt, tie, and cargo pants—were all so striking that I stared at them intently.

And then I realized that "uniforms" are the origin of men's clothing. I read everything from the styling to the captions for items like denim and military wear, and I realized that everything I saw—the DC brands I was interested in and the works of my favorite designers—was connected to this. Popeye's pages drew me more and more to America, which eventually led to the launch of Mojito.

Shibata : So that's where it all started, huh? Workwear, military uniforms...
It really fits the basic concept of our 7th floor.

Page 2: In my 20s, I was so busy I didn't even have time to watch my children grow up.