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. In a previous collaboration project with Isetan Men's Net, they interviewed three designers on the theme of "Exploring the Fashion Perspectives of Masters Through Classic Books."

For our fourth guest, we have Eisuke Yamashita, the fashion director of the magazine "Men's Precious" (Shogakukan). From his bag, Yamashita pulled out Alan Flusser's classic book, "Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion."

The intersection of fashion on the uphill and yankee culture on the downhill.

In our series exploring fashion insights from experts, drawing inspiration from Shibata 's renowned works, we're featuring Eisuke Yamashita, our fourth guest. He's a regular fixture on the 5th floor of Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building . I personally see him often at exhibitions both domestically and internationally, and I'm a big fan of his work on Amvai ( https://amvai.com/amvar/8 )!

Yamashita: I had the pleasure of working with you on the "Men's Masterpiece Exhibition" event on the 5th floor this past April.

(*The above event has already ended. Please be aware of this.)

Shibata: I was really looking forward to hearing from you today, but first, could you tell us about when you first became interested in fashion, Yamashita-san?

Yamashita: I was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1976. When I was in junior high school, "Shibuya casual" fashion became popular, my friends started reading fashion magazines, the manga "Slam Dunk" became popular, and I started buying nice sneakers.

Shibata and I are the same generation! I can totally relate to that generational feeling!

Yamashita: I lived near a station right in the middle of the Tobu Tojo Line in Saitama, a midpoint where the fashionable Tokyo culture coming from the northbound direction intersected with the delinquent culture originating from Gunma Prefecture coming from the southbound direction. It was a unique place where, when I entered high school, I was into delinquent fashion, but by the time I graduated, I had my school uniform trousers altered into bootcuts and was wearing engineer boots (laughs).

Shibata: What influenced you the most back then?

Yamashita : It was definitely magazines. I was physically far from Tokyo, so I didn't have many opportunities to be exposed to fashion. That influenced my decision to start working for magazines.

Page 2: My extremely superficial personality made me more suited to making magazines than making clothes.