Image via Complex Original
Rarely do you see Josh Peskowitz's byline these days, but today we were blessed with such a literary event as he chronicled the love of American style found in Japanese magazine Free & Easy. Even though probably less than 1% of us can actually read Japanese, plenty of menswear stans love Japanese fashion magazines and Free & Easy is without a doubt the G.O.A.T.
With 200 issues now under its belt since its founding in 1998, Free & Easy has established itself as the authority on a particular style set that, while it seems to have died off a bit here in the States, remains stronger than ever in Japan. Rather than being driven by ads as most print magazines, Free & Easy thrives on its meticulous examination of trends and themes found in clothing, like "Dad's Style," "Trad Style" and "Rugged Style," which Editor-in-Chief Minoru Onozato describes in great detail. Pesko points out the most authentic aspect of the magazine is how it fosters fans and almost turns them into subjects. Many of the men photographed for the issues are already readers, creating a microcosm of trends that the magazine helps both create and examine. Free & Easy's Americana pedigree runs so fucking deep that it even worked with RRL for a clothing collection entitled "The Rugged Museum" created specially for the magazine.
It's pretty incredible how organic and authentic Free & Easy has kept its operation. There's no social media presence and the website is scarcely updated, but there's still a grip of non-Japanese speakers who hit up specialty newsstands to catch every issue. Our own little world can only be dissected in so many ways and even though trends today move faster than ever, Free & Easy has soldiered on, producing the kind of #content we can only dream of.
