Ametora

How Japan Saved American Style

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By W. David Marx

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$18.99

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$22.99 CAD

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  1. ebook $18.99 $22.99 CAD
  2. Hardcover $30.00 $38.00 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around December 1, 2015. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

The story of how Japan adopted and ultimately revived traditional American fashion

Look closely at any typically "American" article of clothing these days, and you may be surprised to see a Japanese label inside. From high-end denim to oxford button-downs, Japanese designers have taken the classic American look—known as ametora, or "American traditional"—and turned it into a huge business for companies like Uniqlo, Kamakura Shirts, Evisu, and Kapital. This phenomenon is part of a long dialogue between Japanese and American fashion; in fact, many of the basic items and traditions of the modern American wardrobe are alive and well today thanks to the stewardship of Japanese consumers and fashion cognoscenti, who ritualized and preserved these American styles during periods when they were out of vogue in their native land.

In Ametora, cultural historian W. David Marx traces the Japanese assimilation of American fashion over the past hundred and fifty years, showing how Japanese trendsetters and entrepreneurs mimicked, adapted, imported, and ultimately perfected American style, dramatically reshaping not only Japan's culture but also our own in the process.
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Genre:

On Sale
Dec 1, 2015
Page Count
296 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465073870

W. David Marx

About the Author

W. David Marx is a writer on culture, fashion, and music. He is the author of Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change. A former editor of the Tokyo-New York street culture magazine Tokion, his work has appeared in Vox, Popeye, NewYorker.com, and Lapham’s Quarterly. He lives in Tokyo. 

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