City · Japan
Tokyo
東京
Where European craft was studied to the letter, and in shoemaking arguably surpassed.
Tokyo holds the most technically rigorous bespoke scene outside Europe. Its shoemakers in particular, trained in England, Austria and Hungary, then refined at home, are now among the best in the world. Its tailors are similarly faithful to whichever European tradition they trained in.
A learned trade
Nothing about Western tailoring is native to Japan, and that is the interesting part. Makers went abroad, apprenticed properly, and returned with a method they treat as a discipline rather than an inheritance. The result is work that is frequently more orthodox than the tradition it comes from: a Japanese tailor trained in Florence will often cut a more purely Florentine coat than a Florentine tailor will.
The bespoke shoemaking scene is the clearest case. Built essentially from zero since the 1990s, it now dominates international shoemaking competitions. The house standard (a very close waist, extremely fine hand welting, restrained finishing) has become an influence in its own right, exported back to Europe.
Where to look
The trade is dispersed rather than concentrated in one street: workshops in Ginza, Aoyama, Nihonbashi and residential neighbourhoods, many of them small and by appointment. Ginza holds most of the retail, including the Japanese flagships of the European houses and several excellent cloth merchants.
Japan also has a strong secondhand and vintage trade in tailored clothing, and a level of expertise among dealers that is difficult to find elsewhere.
Images
Bespoke tailors in Tokyo
All bespoke tailors →
Shoemakers in Tokyo
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Houses that travel to Tokyo
These houses hold trunk shows here: fittings and orders taken away from their own workshop. Confirm dates with the house; they move.
| House | Roughly | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Anna Matuozzo | — | — |
| B&Tailor | — | — |
| Camps de Luca | — | — |
| Cesare Attolini | — | — |
| Cifonelli | — | — |
| D'Avino | — | — |
| Gaziano & Girling | — | — |
| George Cleverley | — | — |
| Henry Poole & Co | — | — |
| Liverano & Liverano | — | — |
| Orazio Luciano | — | — |
| Rubinacci | — | — |
| Sartoria Ciardi | — | — |
| Sartoria Dalcuore | — | — |
| Steven Hitchcock | — | — |
The local idiom
Practical notes
Picture credits 5
- Blossoming flowers in Ginza; February 2020 (01): Photograph · Keijiro Takahashi · Wikimedia Commons · CC0
- Gezicht op Ginzastraat in Tokyo met paardentram en winkels Ginza Street, at Tokyo. (titel op object), RP-F-F01102-AT: Photograph · Rijksmuseum · Wikimedia Commons · CC0
- An illustration of the house's recorded cut: soft shoulder, light canvas chest, florentine: wide lapel, rounded chest. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- An illustration of a welted shoe of the kind the house makes. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art