From their bases on opposite sides of the Pacific, Japanese and American menswear labels have begun to rip up the rule books and reinvent how men think about fashion.
Long gone are the days when ostentatious Europeans, such as heavyweights Armani, Gucci and Dior Homme, dominated the industry. Even the elder statesmen of Japanese and American menswear such as Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein no longer have the influence they once had — while the recent closure of Takahiro Miyashita's cult label Number (N)ine and the bankruptcy of esteemed Yohji Yamamoto Inc. have only added to the menswear market's state of flux.
The "New Americans" spearheaded by Thom Browne and including other hotly tipped labels such as Band of Outsiders and Adam Kimmel — and their Japanese counterparts Julius, Kolor and John Lawrence Sullivan — are the young(ish) Turks seeking to transform and reinvigorate the male sartorial landscape.