Recently on the streets of Japan’s various fashion districts, China-inspired clothing has been seeing a rise in popularity. From Kung-Fu pants to Mandarin-style shirt collars, many Japanese clothing manufacturers, especially indie brands, have been releasing an abundance of this casual yet almost lavish type of style for a little over a year now. One notable brand, Ikebukuro’s Yubi Ga Ippon (which roughly translates to “one finger”), has been releasing powerful piece after powerful piece since their start a few years ago.
Just looking at their small storefront located inside of Ikebukuro’s own SPINNS makes me feel as if I’m walking the nighttime streets of Kowloon. It makes sense that the brand would make you feel as though you’re in somewhere totally different, Yubi Ga Ippon’s brand concept is pretty straight to the point about it:
“From the new growing fashion city Ikebukuro to the galaxy! We don’t want to wear the same clothes as everyone else! We don’t care if people laugh behind our backs. Let’s express ourselves and wear our favourite weird clothes!”.
Their aesthetic is clean, fresh, and almost intimidating, and wearing their fashion pieces on the street will surely elicit a few stares.
Recently announced on Yubi Ga Ippon’s Twitter account was their brand new spring line to welcome the new season. Notable items included in the new line are wide, red pants, an embroidered blouse to match, long suspender skirts, and more. True to Yubi Ga Ippon’s branding, all of the items are decorated with classic Chinese designs. The pieces are a loose, comfortable fit, perfect for the warm sun and the cool breeze that spring beckons.
One of my favorite qualities about Yubi Ga Ippon’s fashion line is that all of the clothing from any of their releases can be coordinated together as if they were made to be worn at the same time. Too many times do clothing manufacturers completely change their color schemes between releases, and even change their entire aesthetic to fit whatever popular trend may be present. I think Yubi Ga Ippon puts a lot of hindsight into their pieces, making sure they’re consistent; someone could effectively have an entire wardrobe solely consisting of Yubi Ga Ippon and never run out of coordination options.
Those interested in checking them out should note, Yubi Ga Ippon has stores across Japan located in Ikebukuro, Nagoya, Okinawa, Fukuoka, and Osaka. You can check out their new Spring collection of clothing via SPINNS’ official website. Additionally, those interested in checking out some of their older pieces can head over to their online store, here.