Looking to step up from The 35 Best Asian Streetwear Brands? These 6 brands share the aesthetic but bring elevated materials, construction and a higher price tier — ranked by overall similarity.
Hiroki Nakamura's Tokyo label applies heritage craft and natural dyes to Americana-rooted "future vintage" clothing and footwear such as the FBT moccasin-sneaker.
Why it's similar. Hiroki Nakamura has run visvim from Tokyo since 2000, dyeing indigo by hand and weaving on vintage looms for the FBT moccasin-sneaker and kimono-cut Sanjuro coats.
Seoul label blending punk and skate-rooted streetwear — harnesses, chains, slogan graphics — with increasingly handmade, classical tailoring.
Why it's similar. Designer Hyein Seo and Jinho Lee met at Antwerp's Royal Academy and built a Seoul label on harnesses, chains and slogan graphics stocked at SSENSE and Machine-A.
Tokyo label by Chitose Abe that hybridizes contrasting fabrics and garment archetypes into spliced tailoring, knitwear and outerwear.
Why it's similar. Chitose Abe left Comme des Garcons and Junya Watanabe to found sacai in 1999, splicing bombers onto tailoring and pleated panels into knitwear as single hybrid garments.
Jun Takahashi's Tokyo label, founded 1993, mixing punk, horror and art references with deconstructed tailoring in Paris-shown menswear and womenswear.
Why it's similar. Jun Takahashi has shown UNDERCOVER in Paris since 2002, running punk graphics, MA-1 bombers and horror references through deconstructed tailoring from the Tokyo label he started in 1993.
London label from China-born designer Feng Chen Wang, known for deconstructed, gender-fluid menswear built on convertible 2-in-1 and 3-in-1 construction.
Why it's similar. China-born and RCA-trained, Feng Chen Wang builds gender-fluid menswear on split-seam 2-in-1 and 3-in-1 construction from London, showing on the Paris schedule since SS23.
Rei Kawakubo's Tokyo label, founded 1969, known for avant-garde pattern-cutting, a family of sub-labels and the heart-logo Play diffusion line.
Why it's similar. Rei Kawakubo founded Comme des Garcons in Tokyo in 1969, and its heart-logo Play line, with those Converse collaborations, is how most people enter avant-garde Japanese design.
visvim, HYEIN SEO, Sacai lead our ranking. Looking to step up from The 35 Best Asian Streetwear Brands? These 6 brands share the aesthetic but bring elevated materials, construction and a higher price tier — ranked by overall similarity.