
Hello, I'm Katayama, a buyer.
I am mainly in charge of purchasing.
I love vintage clothes.
Today I'd like to talk a little about my fashion journey.
I started to love clothes during the summer of my first year of junior high school when a friend told me, "You always wear a T-shirt with a smiley face on it lol."
I remember feeling sad and frustrated when someone made fun of my favorite T-shirt with a smiley face on it.
My friend wears what is known as B-boy fashion: baggy T-shirts, baggy jeans, and mad footwear.
One thing he said to me, which seemed cool to me even at the time, really struck me.
From then on, I bought up all the magazines to study fashion.
My entire fashion journey was directly influenced by magazines.
The first thing that influenced me was "men's egg".
It wasn't the heyday of gal boys back then, but Umechan, Ayumun and others were featured and were very attractive. There were also some naughty pages.
Then, when I was in the second year of junior high school, I felt that Gal Boy was outdated, so I switched to Samurai Magazine and 411.
Samurai featured mainly Japanese street brands, and 411 was more American, so I liked 411 more at the time. I don't remember if I was influenced by it, but I bought EVIS JEANS Daikoku denim with my New Year's money, and a friend said "If you shave your head, I'll give you 10,000 yen," so I shaved my head and used the money to buy True Religion. The other day, when I went back to my parents' house, I found some jeans from that time and it was emotional.
From then on, when I was in the third year of junior high school, I felt that 411 was too hardcore and embarrassing, so I became completely devoted to Samurai, and I really admired the rappers Y's who were often featured in them.
At the time, I was working at a select shop in Daikanyama called STUDIUM (now in Harajuku), and it's a fond memory that I spent my first part-time job earnings after entering high school on the STUDIUM online shop. When I looked up Y's, I learned about Yohji Yamamoto and remember thinking, "There's a brand with a confusing name."
From around my second year of high school, I changed my style to choki choki and TUNE, and discovered the coolness of second-hand clothes. Influenced by that, I bought a pair of ripped-up Levis at a local second-hand clothing store, and my grandma got mad at me.
After I switched to Chokichoki, I just bought used clothes at second-hand shops. Even though I call it a second-hand shop, it was a recycle shop, so I bought brand-name used clothes, US used clothes, etc. without knowing anything about them. After I bought them, I would research the brands at home, so I sometimes feel that the knowledge I gained at that time is still useful to me today.
Needless to say, as a vintage clothing lover, I became addicted to it after moving to Tokyo.
While studying at a vocational school, I worked at a second-hand clothing store and was surrounded by seniors who loved second-hand clothing, so I bought clothes from a wide variety of genres.
After graduating from my major, I worked for major department store brands, select shops, and second-hand clothing stores, and just when I was thinking about opening my own second-hand clothing store, the timing was right for me to start one with some friends.
What kind of second-hand clothing store will Studio KNK become?
Everyone, please look forward to it.
I'm looking forward to it too.