Black Bear Brand Opens in Tokyo: Our First Pop Up in Japan
Black Bear Brand Opens in Tokyo: Our First Pop Up in Japan
Friday the doors open. For three days the whole collection is in one room in Tokyo, and so am I.
Friday
On Friday, October 2, Black Bear Brand opens its first pop up in Japan. The room is in Ebisu Minami, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. It is open from noon to 6pm on October 2, 3, and 4.
For the first time, people in Japan can see the line in person, put their hands on the cloth, and try it on. I will be there all three days.
Why Tokyo
Black Bear Brand has lived in two countries for a long time. Many of our pieces are made in Japan, by mills and sewing rooms that are among the finest in the world. Five years ago we set up Black Bear Brand Japan, and Yamada looks after it from Japan as I do from Seattle.
I am in Japan twice a year. This time the clothes come with me, into a room where anyone can walk in.
What Is in the Room
The Vintage Black Bear Brand Engineer Pant and the Vintage Black Bear Brand Engineer Coat, made with TCB, will be shown in person for the first time anywhere. Both come from the original Black Bear Brand engineer stripe, a cloth that belongs to this brand alone, and from original pieces around one hundred and ten years old that I spent years hunting down.
The new Hunter Green peacoat will be there, in 14.7oz wool made for us in the Aichi Ichinomiya area of Japan, in a custom color created with the mill. So will the ART Edition Chain Stitched Varsity Jacket, with more than twenty hours of chain stitch in it.
There will be a very small stock of the Black Bear Brand COMMANDER jacket in black charcoal roughout. It is sold only in that room. It will never be on the website, in any market.
There will be made in the USA tees, and the full collection of our pieces made in Japan, to see and to take home.
The Painting
Our friend and artist Ichirota painted me with two of the motorcycles that carried me across the American West, a 1937 Harley-Davidson and a 1948 Panhead. The painting holds the old Black Bear Brand world behind them, and a Japanese god in each corner. It comes in two parts, right and left, that make one picture together. Ichirota is coming to the pop up to hand me the original in person, and it will hang in the room all three days.
Come Say Hello
If you are in Tokyo, come by. If you are not, the Japan collection lives at Black Bear Brand Japan and the rest is in the Black Bear Brand Factory Store. It starts Friday at noon.
A Way Of Life.
Shop the Story
Vintage Black Bear Brand Engineer Pant
Vintage Black Bear Brand Engineer Coat
Related Reading
Made in Seattle, Made in Japan: The Two Homes of Black Bear Brand