[Ralph Lauren navy blazer original discovered in Ryogoku!] *Due to various circumstances, Namikiya is currently temporarily closed. We are planning to relocate and reopen at the end of February, so please check our website at www.shop-namikiya.jp or contact us by email at [email protected]. Nice to meet you. My name is Eisuke Yamashita, a freelance fashion editor. I have been invited by my kind senior, Mr. Ogiyama, who was my drill sergeant when I was an editor at LEON, to write a series for FORZA STYLE. Please keep me in mind from now on. After living for 44 years, your way of thinking about clothes has changed a lot, and to be honest, I don't really care about things like "trends" or "popularity" anymore! I'm also tired of shops that only sell popular items and have no individuality. What I'm looking for now is a store with a "rich" and "biased" selection that is full of the owner's tastes. It's fine if only those who understand understand. FORZA STYLE is letting us introduce such shops that are now endangered species... no, "clothing stores", so FORZA STYLE is quite a "pervert". Let's go right away! The first one we will introduce is "Namikiya", a select shop in the downtown area of ​​Ryogoku. The display is like that of a men's shop from the past, and it will make you cry. It may be surprising to find a select shop in Ryogoku, but in fact, this is a very old-established shop. With an extremely high-end and high-brow assortment, including ready-made shoes from the now-defunct British bespoke shoemaker "Henry Maxwell", it is said to have captivated the men in this area, where fabric wholesalers and textile manufacturers once flourished. Then, about 10 years ago, the current owner, Hiroshi Nakajima, took over and the business evolved into a select shop that also handles clothing, which is where it is today. Nakajima-san is actually a super veteran with over 50 years of experience in the industry, and is a living dictionary of the select shop industry, having been involved in importing prestigious brands representing the United States and the United Kingdom for many years. He actually started his career at the Levi Strauss Japan Branch, the predecessor of Levi's Japan! That's why there are so many treasures hidden in Namikiya that I don't even know about. Deadstock items such as Henry Maxwell, which is now impossible to get your hands on, and used shoes that customers are selling off are all items that I would definitely want to buy if the size fits. And the "sanctuary" that gets me excited every time I visit the store is the corner that stocks traditional European and American masterpieces. There are only old-fashioned "Western goods" that are particular about the country of origin, such as American-made button-down shirts from Gitman Brothers, British-made knitwear from William Lockey, and Austrian-made Tyrolean jackets from Geiger, but there are also a lot of deadstock items here, so it's first come, first served! By the way, I first encountered Namikiya about 10 years ago, but I have already dug up most of the famous knitwear brands such as Corgi, John Medley, and Fanni Lemmayer, and there are none left now! That's why I really didn't want to introduce this store. While Ogiyama was digging through two-pleat corduroy pants from a brand called Wedge & Wood (Nakajima says it's another Usher brand, but I've never heard of either of them...), I noticed a rack of deadstock American-made tailored jackets today. Now that Southwick, known for sewing Brooks Brothers, has ceased operations, there are almost no factories in the United States that can sew ready-made tailored jackets. The brand name (especially "Bra Noch") and the tag design (especially "Bra Noch") are a bit questionable at first glance, but they are actually extremely valuable! In particular, the long-established brand "Willis & Geiger" that I have been collecting recently has elaborate designs derived from hunting and military, and they are all things that cannot be reproduced today. If you find them, you should get them immediately, but please don't buy them because I will run out of things to buy! After a dopamine-releasing and unsightly fitting time, what I bought today was a navy blazer from "Country Britches". This is a brand that is unknown now, or rather, does not exist anymore, but its origins are real. It is a brand that was launched independently by a designer named Sal Cesarani, who was in charge of manufacturing when Ralph Lauren was founded. In the 1980s, many select shops in Japan handled it. What is amazing about this is that it is the same as a "Polo Ralph Lauren" blazer from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, with slightly wider shoulders, an angled collar, a deep V-zone, a low drawstring, and a slightly short