Kamakura Classics Winter
WHAT ARE KAMAKURA CLASSICS?
For the last thirty years, Kamakura Shirts has been focused on making the highest quality and longest lasting dress shirts. Their Kamakura Classics line pays tribute to the iconic shirt styles from the past that helped shape the company’s core sense of style. Founders Yoshio and Tamiko Sadasue got their start in the 1960s working under Kensuke Ishizu, the man responsible for bringing Ivy League style clothing to Japan, and American East Coast style helped guide the establishment of Kamakura Shirts in 1993. The Ivy spirit of youthful insouciance found a welcome home in Kamakura, a beachside town that has enjoyed its own distinctive culture since the samurai era. The Shōnan coast was the birthplace for Japan’s own version of Ivy in the 1950s: the wealthy, unruly teenagers known as the Sun Tribe. In summoning the spirit of these legendary rebels and creative troublemakers, shirts in the Kamakura Classics line — whether button-downs in oxford and madras, pique polos, jersey pop-overs, or band-collar shirts with flap pockets — aren’t for the office but serve as essential wardrobe basics for the active lifestyles of the forever young at heart. And thanks to the relentless attention to detail, these faithful reproductions look as good today as they did back then. They’re “classics” for a reason.
Written by W. David Marx
W. David Marx is the Tokyo-based author of two books: a cultural history of Japanese menswear, Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style, and a general theory of cultural change, Status and Culture.
Unstructured Ivy Jacket Corduroy
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The so-called “Ivy” style began with students at American East Coast colleges experimenting with sportier, dressed-down versions of gentlemanly British wardrobes. A perfect example is the unstructured suit jacket, which takes the sturdy fabrics and classic silhouettes of a British sports coat and makes it more casual with light construction and no shoulder pads. Kamakura Shirts’ version of this jacket is based on the preferred style of university students in the Fifties, coming in English gray herringbone wool tweed from Abraham Moon & Sons or a Japanese navy corduroy. Both can be dressed up with proper slacks and a necktie or dressed down with jeans. All of the details are pure Ivy: natural shoulders, a narrow three-inch lapel, a three-roll-two front closure, no front darts, a patch pocket on the chest, patch-and-flap side pockets, and a center hook vent at back.
VINTAGE IVY - JAPANESE DENIM 7OZ
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This button-down shirt uses heavy 7oz-weight Japanese denim. Available in two colors: deep or light indigo. Our special fabric treatment process gives the shirts a faded, rugged look reminiscent of worn-out jeans.
Take Ivy Five-Pocket Pants
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These five-pocket pants in off-white or khaki twill are a faithful reproduction of the pairs worn by students in the 1965 photobook, Take Ivy. To ensure historical accuracy, such as no rivet, Kamakura Shirts collaborated with “Doctor Denim” Yūji Honzawa, who is renowned in the industry after working for two of the largest jeans manufacturers in their peak years. The Take Ivy Five-pocket Pants are made from a special cotton blend called “Crystal Sky” from the illustrious Japanese spinning mill, KURABO. The pants’ unique high rise is not just a period detail but perfect for tucking in a vintage Ivy shirt. And Kamakura Shirts worked with the sole company in Japan able to achieve rolled-out seams, which help give the pants a rustic vintage feel that only grows more interesting with every wash.
VINTAGE IVY Button-down Tattersall Flannel
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This brushed soft flannel made in Nishiwaki, Hyogo Prefecture is the best kind of warm and wooly fabric for winter shirts. Available in blue-and-green blackwatch and the navy-and-burgundy on white tattersall, these shirts are bold enough to wear by themselves and look great under a jacket or sweater.
Vintage Ivy Black Knit Tie
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An Ivy-style icon has emerged: a black knit tie that faithfully recreates the atmosphere of the 1960s. It faithfully replicates the weaving technique of that era and features a simple 5cm width design. It pairs exceptionally well with button-down shirts and is a must-have item for achieving a classic style.
*Comes with a specially designed postcard by Graham Marsh.
These warm autumn/winter button-down shirts in white, green, cerulean blue, and navy blue are made from high-quality, Japanese needlecord fabric — a much finer version of corduroy ideal for shirting. The weaving, dyeing, and finishing of the fabric are all done in the Enshu region of Shizuoka Prefecture, where 95% of Japanese corduroy is produced. The fabric is dyed in a drum washer and sun-dried, a method that avoids rollers crushing the ridges in the fabric. The fabric is then singed with fire, wetted, and kneaded to create an ultra-soft texture only possible through Japanese manufacturing.