STUDIO D´ARTISAN Studio D’Artisan “Mother Earth” 14oz Type II Denim Jacket

When it comes to using traditional dyeings and Japanese traditional craftsmanship, nobody does it as the guys of Studio D’artisan. This time they have experimented with “Hani” dyeing for the weft of this impressive denim. “Hani” is a mythical dyeing technique used for the clothes of the ancient Japanese Manyo dynasties and the splendid garments worn by the ancient Chinese emperors. Its origin dates back to the Jomon period. Studio D’artisan has created this year its own version of the ancestral Hani dyeing using red clay and minerals from Uluru, a massive sandstone monolith in the heart of the Northern Territory’s arid “Red Centre” in Australia, which is known as the sacred place of Aborigines and as the navel of the earth. This dyeing method that utilizes natural colours is fixed to the cotton using only soil, water, and plants, but not any chemicals. This denim was born from “Mother Earth”, embracing us with great tenderness and warmth.

As we always say, we love Studio D’artisan’s ability to mix these Japanese culture parts perfectly with the American workwear style. This jacket is a progression of the historical style and craftsmanship inspired by the Japanese American heritage and the blending of cultures. In addition, Japanese ancient literary works such as Manyoshu and Kojiki contain songs and biographies about Hani dyed clothes to pray for safe travel or tell the feelings to those in love.

This Mother Earth denim fabric is woven using an old Toyoda G3 shuttle loom. The Toyoda automatic loom “G3” was first introduced half a century ago. As the earliest power loom in Japan, the maintenance can be challenging simply because there are no more new replacement parts available; when maintenance is needed, they can only replace the parts by gleaning the parts that are still functioning from the same models which are no longer in use. Besides, it has very low productivity as it weaves only 5 meters of fabrics per hour. However, G3 is the only machine that still weaves the same workwear-like denim that had a unique rough surface, yarn evenness and ruggedness as what it did half a century ago. Studio D’artisan is carrying on the legend of the earliest power loom “G3” and producing original denim with it.

This jacket features great details, such as an exclusive 3mm thick cowhide leather patch and branded blackened plated copper buttons. The cut is a reproduction of the iconic Vintage Levi’s 507 XX (2nd Type).

Under the slogan of “Reconstruction of great old things”, Studio D’artisan is one of the iconic brands of Japanese denim. Founded by Shigeharu Tagaki and reproducing classics of French and American workwear since 1979, Studio D’artisan takes pride in having been one of the Osaka 5.