Setsumasa Kobayashi was born in Tokyo in 1961 and worked with numerous brands as a freelance shoe designer before launching his own brand GENERAL RESEARCH in 1994. It was born out of his love for outdoorswear, transcendentalist philosophy and punk music. After deciding that General Research wasn’t specific enough he shuttered the brand and in 2006 he began to present his products on a particular theme as a part of the …..RESEARCH project of which Mountain Research is the core of the project but also includes the likes of Prisoner Suit Research, Horse Blanket Research, War Field Wear Research and more. Each item for the project is designed based on the careful researches on existing products related to each theme.
The General Research Parasite jacket is being reissued as part of a two-piece collaboration with fellow Japanese label IS-NESS.
IS-NESS has been around since 2001, with designer Tomomi Kishita recently refocusing his designs from neo-hippy outdoor gear into trad-inspired balloon pants and buffalo shirts along with his IS-NESS MUSIC line, inspired mostly by electronic music genres with a collegiate spin.
Tomomi and Setsumasa have now linked up make these reworked classics, a jacket style that’s captured the minds of archival collectors such as Constant Practice, some of whom are selling original 1998 General Research Parasite jackets for upwards of £5,000.
Our selection is online here.
Image 1 – Setsumasa Kobayashi
Image 2 – Original 1998 Parasite Jacket featured in an editorial for SMART Magazine
image 3 & 4 – Setsumasa’s mountain retreat (read the article on his home here – https://www.alpinemodern.com/inspirations/a-platform-for-living
Rest of the images from our collection, online now.
Check out a great interview with Setsumasa here – https://yourfashionarchive.com/setsumasa-kobayashis-eternal-research-from-punk-shows-to-the-chichibu-mountain-range/
For AW22 Pop Trading Company enlisted Graffiti legend Delta to design a custom camo pattern which has been used to make a Parka.
This video from a few years gives some background on the artist and highlights his influence.
It’s been a while since our last guest mix but it’s worth the wait. Here we have one of the most adventurous and varied selectors around. Brian not Brian grew up in Antrim and cut his teeth with residencies and guest spots in Belfast’s most respected hip-hop, funk, soul and disco nights throughout the mid to late 90’s. It was the spirit of growing up in Northern Ireland and his experiences in Belfast that saw him bring his own style and flavour to London at the turn of the millennium. Armed with a heavyweight record collection and a solid crew of close musical friends, Brian co-ran the now infamous ‘Special Needs’ parties that lasted almost 8 years at various venues around the city, all while holding down semi regular slots at Horse Meat Disco and other high profile events and even providing the soundtrack to prestige events for Stüssy, Carhartt, Wieden+Kennedy and Villa Arson amongst others.
In more recent times Brian has travelled the world playing music with gigs in Australia, Brazil, the USA and Canada as well as regular trips all over the UK and Europe. These global excursions have no doubt been bolstered by the record label that Brian set up with his longtime friend Salik Z – Going Good. An open-minded and sonically adventurous imprint that has achieved worldwide acclaim in it’s decade long existence and through the tireless championing of underground and fresh music from all corners of the globe, all delivered with a consistent and considered attitude towards releasing records. Brian’s schedule continues to see him travelling far and wide with sets at festivals like Dekmantel, Meadows In The Mountains, Farr Festival and a yearly residency at Kala Festival in Albania, alongside numerous international and domestic club gigs each and every year. Brian has managed to gather an impressive selection of different music from across eras and spectrums, his typically longform DJ sets are able to cross genre boundaries with ease, taste and sensitivity.
In 1964, Narito Takeuchi’s grandfather founded eyewear frame factory “Sunoptical” in Sabae-city and has been producing authentic acetate eyewear frames since. This factory was Narito’s childhood playground and he grew up to the sound of the spinning barrels and watching buffer’s backs.
In 1995, at the age of 15 he started drawing the blueprints of his own frames and 10 years later in 2005 Narito launched Stone-d and he designs and hand makes every pair of glasses with his own hands.
Having a long history of business gave Narito a tremendous amount of precious data in making eyewear but also left him an irrational system and tradition that he needed to break with his new blood. Most of the factories are closed to public and many processes where kept in secret for decades, but he thought it was important to open a door to his family history and started work-shops and factory tours in order to receive direct feedback from his customers.
We have teamed up Decka this Summer for a custom take on their staple 80’s Skater sock. We have flipped the striping with a 2 custom orange outer stripes and a large black middle stripe.
Made on vintage sock knitting machines these socks are highly durable, very comfortable and keep their shape really well.
Check out the short clip above featuring Dee Collins and shot and edited by Benen Dillon.
As The Wire celebrates it’s 20th anniversary, Method Man hosts an official HBO podcast series looking back at the highly influential series. First episode below and check the rest out wherever you get your podcasts.