I found the recent rise in popularity of the Japanese brand A Presse very interesting. Because while there are many things I like and love about the brand, it feels like it’s often misrepresented.
Press is sometimes described as valuable men’s clothing. People see the denim jackets, chinos and other pieces created by founder Kazuma Shigematsu and describe it as a modern take on the Japanese designer’s classic concept of Americana.
But A Presse is more of a fashion brand than a heritage one – something that is very clear in its silhouettes.
Yes, Shigematsu is a vintage collector and is inspired by many of the same pieces as someone like Kinji Teramoto of 35summers or Kentaro Nakagomi of Unity. And yes, he is very focused on the details of production and creates beautiful, living and old fabrics.
But fits push the fashion category too far, and that’s the reason most clothes don’t work for me.
I’ve tried A Presse clothes a few times in recent years. I’m always interested in quality menswear brands and I would do the same with The Row, Lemaire or Visvim for example. It’s moving; it expands your vision.
But while I tend to like the elements of A Presse’s clothes – and the price wouldn’t be an issue if something felt special – the silhouettes are too exaggerated.
On a recent visit, I tried on a few pieces in Selfridges after seeing them from our friend Chris Moorbypre-owned PS sales. I tried on an overshirt, a knit, some chinos and a canvas jacket, finding a good range of pieces.
Knitting(above)it was made of a luxurious silk fabric that felt like dry wool, with just a hint of unexpected luxury. The dark olive color was perfect, and the Henley neckline is something I don’t have, and it looks great over a shirt.
But the sleeves went up to my arms (as you can see in the model above, in the middle) and the body came down to completely cover my bum. They are not petty, and in any case this was clearly intended.
The bomber jacket (above) was the opposite – so short that it easily climbed above my high-rise jeans, and the blousing in the back was more than you’d see in even the biggest old-school Valstarinos.
There is nothing wrong with this kind of look, and I like it on some people, but these are not classic shapes – they are deliberately exaggerated, deliberately far from the norm, and therefore more fashionable.
Fits like this are often the reason a product is described as ‘the perfect look’. As it is, you need to buy the perfect look for the clothes to work. That’s not really the case, but it may feel that way because exaggerated shapes don’t work with the rest of your wardrobe.
There is a spectrum here, and brands occupy different places on it.
Stoffa (above), for example, is a brand we love and have covered over the years. Agyesh and the team often design clothes with slightly unusual shapes, they are creative and play with them in the same way they do with fabrics.
But they are subtle, and because of that many things work with other parts of my wardrobe. Luke at LEJ plays with this a bit, but in a subtle way. And brands like Rubato vary in very small ways – and in fact have become classic over time, as the knits touch the longer, the pants shrink a little.
Now, two more points on exaggerated silhouettes: the first, they tend to work in certain human spirits; and two, they tend to heal quickly.
Big, short dresses look great on big guys – especially tall and broad ones. It looks good on Chris, and it’s the reason Adret clothes look good on Adam Rogers (its founder). But they are not for everyone.
A big look can also look out of date, say, 10 or 20 years, on moderate people. That’s not a problem if you’re updating your closet regularly anyway, but it’s not something most people want.
Those two points come together when you consider something like the Hedi Slimane skinny suit that dominated menswear in the early 2000s (below). They were extravagant and quickly fell in love; and older boys struggle to wear them – which is the opposite of fashion today.
I really like A Presse – its fabrics, even the little things like its small label. It feels refreshing compared to most of the fashion we’ve had in the last decade.
People who criticize a brand like A Presse based on something like quality production, don’t have much of a point either. Unique fabric development is very difficult to do, and often very expensive.
Finally, I have to say that the fit varies in A Presse – some are straighter and more primitive than others. But a lot falls into this big category, and the broader point is also very important: that thinking about clothes from a silhouette point of view is a useful idea – one that we haven’t talked about enough in PS over the years.