Why are fashion insiders willing to spend big on Japanese brands most people have never heard of?

As the Spring/Summer 2027 menswear fashion weeks came to a close, the media continued to devote most of its attention to major names, from Dior with Yamashita Tomohisa to Louis Vuitton with Jackson Wang. But away from the spotlight, fashion insiders have been talking about a new “phenomenon”: designer brands bearing the words Made in Japan.
The New York Times once called them “the designers changing menswear.” The praise was not directed at those creating short-lived trends, but at brands patiently building their identities through silhouette, materials, and garment-making techniques.
Amid familiar ideas such as “quiet luxury,” “honest menswear,” and a philosophy of long-term consumption, the list of brands worth investing in no longer ends with Loro Piana or The Row. From Japan, a new generation of labels is proving that the most valuable piece isn't the one that makes others recognise what you are wearing, but the one that makes you want to wear it again and again for years.

In 2020, as the entire fashion world slowed down because of the pandemic, Kazuma Shigematsu quietly founded A.Presse. While many considered it a sensitive time to launch a brand, the founder believed there could be no better moment to begin one whose philosophy was built around not rushing from the very start.
A.Presse goes against nearly every rule of growth in modern fashion. It has no online store, does not aggressively expand its points of sale, and is in no hurry to chase visibility. Shigematsu believes good clothes should spread through trust between people—the kind of way someone wears something long enough for another person to eventually ask, “What brand is that shirt?”
Shigematsu often says that he does not design, but instead edits the beauty that time has preserved. That is why A.Presse describes itself on Instagram as an Editor rather than a Designer.
A.Presse clothing feels like something that has already accompanied its wearer through many seasons, quietly preserving traces of time in every fibre. Flannel shirts are blended with silk to give the surface greater softness and a deeper sheen. Canvas is washed repeatedly to retain a gently faded tone reminiscent of old sunlight, while the stitching almost disappears into the fabric yet quietly holds the entire silhouette together. At A.Presse, the less there is to show off, the more those in the industry understand there is to talk about.

After working at NORIKOike, Ryota Iwai founded Auralee in 2015 with the principle that material should always come before silhouette. Each of his collections begins with the raw material, and only then do the cut, proportions, and movement of the clothes gradually take shape.
Wool is a material Iwai has spent years pursuing. He has travelled to Peru, Mongolia, and Egypt in search of fibres, while also developing exclusive fabrics himself to achieve exactly the softness and drape he wants. Even the internal seams are finished with an uncommon degree of patience.
Ivory, beige, smoky grey, and pale brown quietly wrap around fluid silhouettes, allowing the materials to tell their own story. Each design feels like a gentle pause—enduring, understated, and revealing greater depth the longer it is worn.
In a season filled with neutral tones and the spirit of Quiet Luxury, Auralee Spring/Summer 2027 is a world covered in soft sunlight, cream, powder blue, butter yellow, and muted shades like the earth just waking after dawn.
The name Auralee originally comes from a Native American song and means “a land filled with sunlight.” That spirit also permeates Iwai’s designs. He does not colour the clothes; he dyes them with sunlight. Each layer of fabric seems to hold onto the warmth of morning, while every silhouette is so light that even the slightest breeze is enough to bring it to life.

In 2017, amid the rush of New York, Taiga Takahashi founded his namesake brand in an effort to rediscover how clothes were made before the age of machinery and mass production.
Each garment feels as though it has been revived from workwear dating to before the Industrial Revolution, woven on old looms, dyed with plants, and finished by the hands of Japanese artisans. Every stitch carries the memory of an era that has long passed.
Even in its product descriptions, the brand clearly states the year and period of the original garment that inspired each piece. This almost obsessive level of research has made T.T a sought-after name among collectors and lovers of artisanal fashion.
After Taiga Takahashi passed away later in 2017, the brand was renamed T.T and continued to operate under his team of collaborators, while also expanding into womenswear to carry forward the legacy he left behind.

Among the brands on this list, Comoli was founded the earliest, but it is also the most private. For many years, Keijiro Komori said no to social media. It was not until 2025 that Comoli created an official Instagram account, by which point the hashtag #Comoli had already quietly accumulated hundreds of thousands of posts from people wearing the brand.
After a decade working at ÉDIFICE, Komori founded Comoli in 2011 with the desire to create clothes that customers would want to wear every day.
That is why Comoli’s silhouettes always sit in a beautifully balanced space between loose and fitted. The cuts are straight, soft, and relaxed, giving the fabric room to fall naturally while allowing the body to breathe inside the clothes.
The closer you look, the more apparent it becomes that Komori directs much of his perfectionism toward things that are difficult to see with the naked eye: the surface of the fabric, shoulder seams, hems, or the softness of each individual fibre.

Founder Kiichiro Asakawa did not come from a prestigious design school. He taught himself, beginning by altering vintage pieces in a store before selling them to customers.
Every time he took apart a garment, changed its proportions, or reconstructed its silhouette became a practical lesson, quietly shaping the founder’s design thinking before stein was established in 2016.
In 2024, after changing its name to ssstein, the brand went on to win the Tokyo Fashion Award, show at Paris Fashion Week, and reach the semifinals of the LVMH Prize.
The ssstein introduction page contains only one short line: “stillness and motion, minimal and maximal, mode and tradition.” Stillness and movement. Minimalism and maximalism. Contemporary and traditional. These opposing pairs form the soul of the brand, recalling the meaning of being “unfinished” in German that Asakawa intended to convey through the name.
That is why ssstein’s clothes are always loose yet still neat, restrained without ever feeling bland, and neutral while still containing depth. Each design feels like a story deliberately left unfinished, allowing the wearer to complete it through their own personality.

5 Must-Know Japanese Brands Making Their Mark on Menswear

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