Lookbook #1: Kapital Spring 2015
5/12/23 | 3-4 mins | Lookbooks
Sant Domingo, Burning Man
As the original Japanese Americana brand, Kapital has long paved the way for the style both locally, and world-wide. With the inspiration for the brand originating from exposure to American denim through a trip to the US for Karate, they have taken design cues from vintage workwear, military, frontier and hippie styles. From these, traditional Japanese garment construction techniques, principally sashiko and boro among others, were applied which resulted in a design language which is distinct from the attire true to the original influence, but is analogous enough to easily identify the influence.
Something Kapital has always integrated into their lines is story telling through photography, with a twice yearly look book shot ontop of each season's offerings to contextualise the garments and immerse the consumer in the specific inspirations for that season. For this lookbook, we are heading back to 2015 to champion one of their most poignant shoots, the Sant Domingo, Burning Man look book.
Picking the scenery of the American outback, or what they call "The Wild Old West", they take the reader through a series of environments and people you may expect to come across while traversing through them. Starting with steam trains, they portray the aesthetic of those workers and the more wealthy travelers. As they scenery progresses into more baron land, the styles move towards the frontier and hunting aesthetics. There is even representation of hippie culture and style from the 60s as they move towards forest biomes. The namesake is portrayed in the conclusion of the book, where by wearing the punk influences on their sleeve they produced a small-scale burning man as the backdrop for their garments which have an anarchist spin. Throughout this lookbook they integrate their clothing into the environment which it was inspired by. They even provided black and white stills to convey time-period authenticity, a representation of to Kapital's attention to detail in the collection imagery.
With very little branding throughout, it is easy to forget that what you are looking at is indeed a catalogue for a Japanese clothing line, however looking closely there are some tips which indicate a deviation from historical accuracy due to a combination of design language changes, and stereotypical media inspirations. For example, the lookbook itself portrays extreme patriotism. While patriotism was at an all time high during the time period of inspiration, some of the scenes championed it to the point of excess. This is likely due to the media's portrayal of America in Japan around the time of Kapital's inception in the 80s. Additionally, the cuts, detailing, hardware and overall garment construction often deviates markedly from the true garments of the times being represented. However, these inaccuracies are not inherently negative, as they adds playfulness and individuality to the collection, which transforms garments which may have a negative connotation from the past into forward-thinking wearable representations of history.
Overall, the look book is successful at bringing the reader back to the time of the inception of the styles through seamless integration of their garments into period correct set design. This was able to overtly display their inspirations in a way that was interesting to the reader, while providing cultural value, rather than a purely transactional piece of literature. If you would like to peruse the look book in question, the link here will take you there.
Kapital Spring 2015 via Archivepdf
Kapital Spring 2015 via Archivepdf
Kapital Spring 2015 via Archivepdf
Kapital Spring 2015 via Archivepdf
Kapital Spring 2015 via Archivepdf
