The incredible history of KAPITAL Japan We look back at the history of the brand, on the day of the founder's passing

«Denim. That is my philosophy».These were the words of Kazuhiro "Kiro" Hirata, creative director of Kapital, when Noah Johnson interviewed him for GQ five years ago. A word that expresses well the essence of a brand that knows no more words. Currently Kapital has become the ultimate brand in that diverse universe that is Japanese denim – a universe that has its center in the city of Kojima, which has risen to this role of great importance after, with the spread of American fashion among the youth following the post-war occupation of the USA in Japan, its textile factories specialized in uniforms and workwear converted to denim factories to follow the new business opportunity , being in a unique aesthetic coincidence between workwear materials and Japanese craftsmanship.Today, a piece of that history has come to an end with the announcement of the passing of the founding father of this cult brand, Toshikiyo Hirata, who was among the leading creators of denim to bring back into vogue the boron-stitching technique for which Kapital has become famous and who was part, as one of its most prominent members, of that legion of Japanese entrepreneurs and designers who created the "Japanese Americana" style. Specifically, Kapital distanced himself from other denim producers for its edginess: a tortured and structurally complex aesthetic, but not without pop elements, which attracted rock and hip-hop musicians such as A$AP Rocky, Kanye West, Travis Scott, Pharrell, Harry Styles and John Mayer, among others.

An important element of the brand's aesthetic is precisely the sheer drama of fits and silhouettes: jeans decorated with ancient sashiko sewing techniques, denim jackets with collars and bottom edges sawed off, three-dimensional-looking duvets intertwined with historical techniques of the Jomon period, treatments based on persimmon juice that make jeans stiff and almost sculptural in their fit, flannel shirts created stitching together five different shirts, the use of the traditional Japanese Boro technique that involves the overlapping of different fabrics held together by a decorative seam pattern, creating that DIY patchwork aesthetic that makes the items seem antique – every single piece has unique details and intentional flaws that, ideally, should accumulate more and more welcoming, so to speak, in the design of the garment the very life of the wearer and making it unique in its kind. According to this conception, which always falls within the scope of the wabi-sabi philosophy, the garment must not remain intact and unchanged from the moment of sale but, on the contrary, enrich itself with details with every wear and tear or stretch marks – details that in the factory would not be possible to recreate and that ultimately constitute the sense of experience that makes each piece special. 

Kapital's clothes are more valuable for the spirit with which they are created than for the opulence of materials or the sartorial acrobatics of design - which are not lacking. Wearing them is an experience and the experiences you make wearing them end up affecting their own final appearance – in a word, the clothes change along with the wearer, transcending the same concept of simple jeans and becoming almost living creatures, in a constant stream of subtle transformations.