Kapital is the label people point to when they want to explain why Japanese clothing feels different. Its pieces are patched, stitched, dyed, faded and sometimes deliberately odd, and they are made in the same small corner of Okayama Prefecture that built Japan's denim industry. The clothes are expensive and they are not subtle, but once you understand what Kapital is doing, the appeal makes a lot of sense.
Here is Kapital explained: where it comes from, the craft techniques behind it, the pieces worth knowing and how to actually buy it, inside or outside Japan.
Where Kapital comes from
Kapital is based in Kojima, a district of Kurashiki on the Seto Inland Sea that has been a textile town for generations and is now best known as the home of Japanese jeans. According to the company profile on its official site, Kapital Co., Ltd. was established in March 1985 and is still headquartered in Kojima. The label grew out of the denim work of founder Toshikiyo Hirata, and its creative direction is led by his son Kazuhiro Hirata, better known as Kiro, who is listed as the company's representative director.
What really sets Kapital apart is how much of the work it keeps in house. The company lists four of its own sewing factories, the head office factory plus sites it calls Mitsu, Yamashiro and Yanagida, along with a dye works it calls the Kountry factory. Owning the sewing and dyeing is what lets Kapital run hand dyeing, distressing, patchwork and repair at a scale few fashion labels would attempt.
The techniques behind the clothes
- Boro. The word means ragged or tattered in Japanese, and it describes the patched cloth rural families made by layering scraps over worn garments so they could keep them going for decades. Kapital builds new pieces in that spirit, stacking patches of denim, cotton and stitched cloth so a jacket looks like it has been mended for a lifetime.
- Sashiko. A running-stitch technique used to reinforce and quilt fabric, traditionally white thread on indigo cloth. Kapital uses it on patches, jackets, pants and knits, both as structure and as decoration.
- Indigo and hand dyeing. With its own dye works, Kapital colors much of its clothing in house, from deep indigo to faded, sun-bleached tones that look decades old on day one.
- Remake and repair. Many pieces are reworked or treated to look heavily lived in, with distressing, darning and visible mending treated as part of the design rather than something to hide.
The result mixes Japanese craft with American workwear and Western imagery. Kapital is open about where some of that comes from: on its own site it describes Native American adobe houses as something its creations cannot do without.
The Kapital pieces to know
Denim and Century Denim
Kapital started in denim, and denim is still the backbone of the label. Its jeans and jackets range from clean, straightforward cuts to heavily patched and bleached pieces, and its long-running Century Denim line now has its own store, Century Denim Ginza, in Tokyo. For a first Kapital purchase, a pair of jeans is the most wearable way in. Our Japanese denim brands guide puts the label in context with other Okayama makers such as Momotaro Jeans.
Boro and patchwork jackets
The pieces that made Kapital famous are its boro and patchwork jackets, coats and pants, where dozens of patches and lines of sashiko stitching cover the whole garment. Because so much of the work is done by hand, no two look exactly alike, and that is the point. These are the most expensive things Kapital makes, they often arrive in small numbers and they tend to sell out fast.
Kountry
Kountry is the name Kapital gives its dye works and a separate collection on its site each season. It is where the label's experimental side shows most clearly: remade and heavily treated pieces, bold prints and the mash-up of Japanese folk craft, American vintage and Western imagery that people think of as the Kapital look.
Knitwear, bandanas and accessories
Kapital's knitwear is some of its best-loved work, from chunky sweaters to hooded knits worked with bandana and Nordic patterns. Bandanas run through the whole line, sold on their own and printed into sweaters, scarves, shirts and mufflers. The accessories, which include socks, hats, scarves and bags, are the easiest and least expensive way to own something from the label, and they make a great first piece if the jackets feel like too much.
Visiting Kapital in Kojima
The label's home store in Kojima is called SOHO, set in the old Kojima library building that became Kapital's creative base in 2013. The name comes from an old Japanese word for the color of red earth, which Kapital ties both to the building's rust-colored exterior and to the adobe houses that inspire it, while the English reading gives it a city feel.
An annex next door houses the Elephant Brand Bandanna Museum. Elephant Brand was an American bandana brand produced mainly on the East Coast from around 1910 into the 1980s, marked by a small elephant on the edge of each bandana. The museum shows pieces from Kiro Hirata's own collection, built over more than a decade, and was put together with Chicago bandana collector Jonathan Lukacek. If you are traveling in Japan, Kojima makes a good day trip from Okayama, with plenty of other denim shops nearby.
How to buy Kapital
Kapital runs its own stores across Japan, including several in Tokyo in Ebisu, Roppongi Hills, Shirokanedai and the Century Denim store in Ginza, plus shops in Sapporo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka and the SOHO flagship in Kojima. The full list with addresses is on its official store list.
The official Kapital web shop carries the current collection, but it only delivers to addresses within Japan. Outside the country, Kapital is sold through a small number of select stockists, and new drops often appear first on the label's official Instagram account before they reach any website.
- Check measurements. Kapital sizes much of its clothing in numbers rather than letters, and fits vary a lot by style, from boxy and cropped to very wide. Compare the listed measurements against a piece you already own.
- Expect variation. Hand-dyed and hand-patched pieces differ from photo to photo. Small irregularities are part of the craft, not defects.
- Wash gently. Treat dyed and distressed pieces like good raw denim: cold water, inside out and air dried, so the color and the patchwork last.
If you like Kapital
For more Japanese heritage clothing, see Buzz Rickson's for faithful military flight jacket reproductions, and Engineered Garments for Daiki Suzuki's workwear label from the Nepenthes family. More lives in our Japanese denim and workwear hub.
