Can you try to briefly encapsulate the Japanese love for Americana—in all aspects, not just fashion?

Kiya: The Japanese love American culture, we all know that. The reason so many of them have latched onto this one era of Americana is because it’s viewed to be the Golden Era. During the time after WWII ended, Americans came home to their families and new styles of music, business, and culture were popping up at a fast rate. It was everything that the Americans missed out on during the war that they tried to fill during those years that followed. Results of all this are things like rockabilly, which was the original punk rock, or car cruising, which was the original rebellious thing to do with girls in the back seat and beers all over the car floor. These were kids rebelling against the institution who were also the cool kids. The Japanese fetishize different parts of 40s and 50s American culture—everything from the rockabilly greaser look to wearing military and flight jackets over chinos. The ones that turn it into a full lifestyle are the ones who follow the rockabilly thing and buy a car from the 50s, etc…

Can you talk about the fascination with denim, and the quote that Andrew attributed to you about how “Denim doesn’t lie”?

Kiya: Indigo is a living molecule, it changes over time whether or not it’s attached to a cotton fiber and being worn as a pair of pants. This is a fascinating thing; you can’t say that about anything else that we buy as a piece of clothing or almost any other material object which we own. The indigo dye ages over time and shows off a patina that’s unlike anything else; there’s no way to reverse the effects of everyday wear or to reverse its natural aging process. With these things taken into consideration, it’s a beautiful process to watch and to study old textiles which were dyed with the plant. Jeans are just a vehicle for us to study and watch indigo change over time. Five-pocket jeans are wearable in almost any situation and have turned into an iconic symbol of casual America.

I want to ask you to explain the bizarre connection between Japan and America as it pertains to your products: It’s Japanese craftsmanship on a product that’s distinctly American sold in Japan and shipped to the US and curated by Americans. Explain how that happened.

Kiya: I’d been following the Japanese denim scene for years, for about 12 years now. I had traveled to Asia when I was younger and noticed that the Japanese had started to reproduce this vintage American style, starting with the jeans.

I was buying magazines and as many of the jeans as I could and bringing them back to San Francisco. I searched everywhere I could for these styles in the states and realized that this sort of jean didn’t really exist here. Here we had all fashion products and almost everything was pre-distressed. So after years of studying, reading, and traveling, my wife and I decided to open Self Edge in San Francisco to bring this style of jean to the states. Granted, we weren’t the first ones to sell this exact type of product in the US, but we were the first ones to sell it with the purist vision of only doing this one style of product. It was definitely a risk, and thinking back now it’s hard to imagine, but when we first started Self Edge nobody knew what “chambray” was. Barely any stores in the US carried any raw selvedge denim, and the thought of selling reproduced navy shirts was extremely foreign.

That’s weird, because now GAP and Target sell chambray.

Kiya: Yup, so it goes.