The Next Step In A.PRESSE’s Menswear Takeover? World Domination (EXCLUSIVE)
Phones ruin great clothes. How could they not? Even the best clothes are made meaningless when they’re rendered as squashed, two-dimensional representations on a tiny screen. This is the curse that accompanies the blessing of convenience: when everything is always available at the same time, very little stands out.
This really riles A.PRESSE. To say that the Japanese clothing label is fanatical about craft is an understatement. As Eugene Rabkin appropriately put it, A.PRESSE is to blue-collar clothes as The Row and Brunello Cucinelli are to white-collar finery; we’re talking workwear clothes made with so much effort that it only clicks when the clothes are touched. From afar, how could anyone really appreciate that A.PRESSE transformed a pair of jeans ostensibly inspired by prisoner trousers with a level of stitching and fabric treatment typically reserved for bespoke suits?
Now, for the first time, the brand is hitting the road on a four-stop semi-world tour that touches down at four of the finest stores in the world, three in Europe and one in New York.
“We are usually very secretive and [avoid] communication, as we think feeling is better than language,” says an A.PRESSE representative, who asked to be anonymous (go figure). “But at this point, we want to do storytelling a bit more than usual.“
In the case of A.PRESSE, handfeel is worth a thousand words. But if those words are coming from its press-shy designer Kazuma Shigematsu, well, they’re worth much more. “The main purpose is being able to share with our customers the knowledge and inspiration, our values and vision,” says the representative, highlighting that members of the A.PRESSE team will be on hand to clarify exactly how much thought went into the beautiful shirt or jacket that you’re trying on.
Obviously, our primary focus of A.PRESSE’s tour is September 26, when A.PRESSE hits the Highsnobiety flagship store in Berlin (unter den Linden 40, 10117).
Prior, A.PRESSE will be visiting Nitty Gritty in Stockholm and Zürich’s Opia before touching down at Brooklyn’s Ven.Space.
This is not A.PRESSE’s first time going international. Its clothes are currently available at over a dozen retailers outside of Japan, with plans to double those numbers by 2026. And, sometimes, it operates appointment-only trunk shows at partners like Union LA, where customers can place special orders for later delivery.
But this tour is the first time that the folks behind A.PRESSE will be making appearances alongside their designs, which will be shoppable in person. Still, conversation is more a priority than commerce, with knowledgeable designers offering rare insights into rare clothes. If A.PRESSE’s clothing is the embodiment of the human touch, this tour epitomizes the human connection all too rare at this level of artisanal clothing.
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