Image via Complex Original
Despite any pre-concieved notions you may have, visvim has been around much longer than just the past few years. Thanks to the likes of Kanye, A$AP Rocky and John Mayer, awareness of the Japanese brand's presence has risen in the mainstream consciousness. But the relatively small business has been around for over a decade consistently churning out what creator Hiorki Nakamura designates and perceives simply as "good product." Operating with such noble and honest intentions within the fickle nature of the menswear/streetwear worlds is quite a feat. But when you're good, you're good.
Visvim doesn't have a lot of secrets, especially since Hiroki is uniquely open to speaking with any and everyone who exhibits interest in his brand. However, when visvim is compared to some of the Ura-Hara era brands of the '90s, a movement anchored by favorites like Bathing Ape and Fragment Design, you definitely want to learn all there is to know. Here's your chance to delve into some unfamiliar territory about the 12-year-old brand that's one of the hottest labels today. These are 15 Things You Didn't Know About visvim.
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As a teenager growing up in Tokyo, Nakamura used to travel to the U.S. to search for vintage Levi's.
He and friends would make the trips and return feeling like they were the only ones in Tokyo wearing vintage denim and Red Wing boots.
Nakamura worked as a designer at Burton Snowboards for eight years before venturing off to start visvim.
The word "visvim" has no meaning.
Nakamura wanted the brand name to be made up and he liked various V-lettering logos, so he started looking through the "V" section of the dictionary for inspiration. He explains that, "I found 'vis,' then I found 'vim' and visually I liked how they looked together."
visvim's most popular shoe model, the FBT, is named after the short-lived English New Wave pop band, Fun Boy Three.
Nakamura said the inspiration came from a Fun Boy Three record cover, which Hiroshi Fujiwara showed him. Fujiwara pointed out lead singer Terry Hall’s moccasins, and suggested Nakamura make something similar.
The inspiration for the FOLK series came from an elderly Sami tribeswoman who made Nakamura a pair of reindeer-hide boots.
While in the Sami-inhabited region of northern Scandinavia, Nakamura was wearing a pair of sheep-skin prototypes he had made, but his feet were freezing. The tribeswoman was concerned, so she made a pair of boots for him. He claims the “primitive” Sami boots were some of the warmest, most breathable, and functional boots he'd ever worn.
The Christo Sandal is inspired by the "wrappings" of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
"Shoes are, in a way, very similar to Christo’s wrappings of bridges, monuments, natural formations, and other varieties of everyday objects. The wrappings offer the viewer a general idea of what is underneath without revealing what is really underneath.
"I sought to create a sandal with that idea behind it. Since sandals are usually worn during the hot summer days, a typical sandal utilizes very little material and reveals most of your foot. But the CHRISTO is the opposite of that. It covers most of your feet, revealing only small parts with a strap that criss-crosses the top of your foot, as if your feet were bound inside this material."
The strings used to stitch the hides together for the FW12 teepee were tanned using buffalo brains.
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The tiny cross used throughout the FW13 collection is based on the "+" symbol always found in artist Joseph Beuys' signature.
The cross has been used in past collections as well, as have other references to the German conceptual artist's "Social Sculpture."
Nakamura claims to never wear socks because he wants to feel the materials of the shoe on his skin.
He says, “I never wear socks, I like to test my products and feel the leather or materials next to my skin. I never want to sweat in my shoes. This is how moccasins were worn for hundreds of years.”
visvim often crushes up a beetle-like insect, the Cochineal, to create a dye.
It takes 80,000 to 100,000 of the insect to make one kilogram of dye.
Nakamura has gone on record to say he doesn't care where his pieces are produced, as long as they're made well.
He explains that, "My job is to coordinate and make things better, so I’ll produce anywhere it takes to do this. If I find good factories or suppliers in Italy, France, America, Japan, or China, then I’ll use them."
visvim's FW13 Exploratory Robe is made of tree bark.
The piece is completely handmade and carries a very steep price tag of up to $30,000.
Union Los Angeles and Chris Gibbs are planning on bringing the world-renowned, VIP-only visvim trunk show to New York sometime in 2014.
A lot of the product is made-to-order for the individual, so the show is custom-built for customers and is invite only.
