Buy the Originals

I recently visited Grand Street Local, a shop near me specializing in rare vintage clothing, and I spoke at length with the owner, Jon. The store has an impressive collection that I didn’t fully appreciate on my first visit last year. I remember browsing their vintage jeans and scoffing at the $400+ price tags, wondering who would pay that much for 40-year-old Levi’s. However, my perspective has changed. Vintage fashion is in right now, and many top menswear brands like Aime Leon Dore, Buck Mason, and Todd Snyder are essentially creating reproductions of items found in this store. One popular cult Japanese brand called The Real McCoys, specializes in reproducing 1940s-1950s military wear using the same materials, methods, and machinery that they used back in the day.

Jon mentioned that the founders of the Japanese brand, Kapital, were in the shop the other day and purchased a $5,000 Levi’s Type 1 denim Jacket from the 1940s. Their intention was to bring the jacket back to Japan and learn how to replicate it.

It’s ironic that people often balk at the idea of paying hundreds of dollars for vintage clothing, yet they’re willing to pay more than twice as much for a designer replica. However, there’s no substitute for owning the original piece. Authentic, high-quality originals are typically more durable than designer reproductions too.