Kyoto Denim

Back to Tradition.

Those are the words that better describe this new, innovating, denim fashion.

The trend began in small artisan shops in Kyoto, but is now a full-blown fashion subset very popular with the “Yankii” (or “casual punks”), mimicking the style of the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), who wear silk embroidered jackets with similar motifs.

The painting is done by yu-zen, a traditional dyeing technique practiced in the old capital of Kyoto, using the jeans as canvases for old school pictures like koi fish, temple gates and ukiyo-e style waves.

"There's 1200 years of history of artisans in this city, but now young people are opening up to learning about the techniques. (…)It's totally 3-D! We're really interested in mixing the old with the new." says Yasuaki Matsumoto, representative of the clothing label Little Romance.

Of course, this fashion being born in Japan, wasn't limited only to denim, and there are plenty diferent types of clothes (and materials) with this design that were created. Here is another site.