UES

UES is a Japanese denim and workwear label that began in 1967 as a baby clothing manufacturer. It has grown into a brand for all generations, and it has never run a discount sale. The clothes are made on traditional looms and vintage machines, using rare cottons and old-world dyeing, so fading is treated as a feature rather than a flaw. The idea is that you wear a pair until it becomes a rag, which is what the Japanese "ues" means. The first flagship opened in Kobe in 1997. The Daikanyama shop in Tokyo had a repair area, and organic cotton is used where possible. Customers share how their jeans have aged through the Denim Gallery and Denim Marathon.