COTE MER: Reconstructed Vintage and the Conversion of Values
COTE MER takes the discarded and gives it a second authority. A worn band T-shirt becomes the body of a bomber jacket; an indigo trucker jacket is panelled with obi brocade. The label’s own phrase for this, given to Tokyo fashion week, is ‘Conversion of values’. It is one of the clearest expressions in Tokyo of a long Japanese habit, the remaking of textile, and this guide sets out what is documented about it and what the garments themselves show.
Norio Sato and the beginning
A 2017 interview in HOUYHNHNM says that Norio Sato launched COTE MER in 2008. He had begun importing vintage clothing in 1998, and he named the label for Oceanside, California, from the phrase ‘côte la mer’. The label sells through KANTALAND in Harajuku, and Sato co-runs a second label, Broke City Gold. Tokyo fashion week names Sato and Seishi Naito as the designers.
The published record
Independent coverage of COTE MER is slight: one long interview and a Hypebeast report from October 2017, which described an emergent label in which vintage is re-sewn and compared it with Rebuild by Needles. The press does not itemise the materials the label uses, and the kimono-stitched denim in the record belongs to Broke City Gold. What follows therefore draws on the garments themselves, which are the best evidence.
What the garments show
- Obi brocade on indigo. A reconstructed trucker jacket in indigo is panelled with kimono obi brocade, so that the woven brocade of a formal sash sits on workwear.
- The band-tee remake. A rock T-shirt is unpicked and rebuilt as a bomber jacket, a conversion from merchandise to outerwear.
- Kimono patchwork denim. The Broke City Gold collaboration stitches kimono and obi fabric into denim in a patchwork.
The photographs are in the Visual Glossary, and the wider tradition is in Japanese Remake and Upcycled Kimono Fashion and Upcycled Kimono Remake Fashion.
Conversion of values
The phrase can be read in two ways. In the first, the value of a thrown-away object is converted: a damaged band shirt becomes a jacket worth many times as much. In the second, values are converted in the sense of cultural exchange: the American workwear form, the British rock logo and the Japanese ceremonial textile are each translated into the others. Either reading puts COTE MER beside the remake makers discussed in What Is Japanese Craft Philosophy?
Collecting notes
- One of a kind. Because each piece is made from a unique base garment, no two are the same. Compare the construction, not just the look.
- Textile condition. Antique obi and kimono silk can have age marks; examine the panels closely.
- Sizing. Base garments are vintage, so sizes follow the original; take flat measurements.
Why Japan
The raw material is Japanese. Kimono and obi cloth in quantity, and vintage American garments of the kind the amekaji generation collected, are found in Japan, which is why this remake culture grew here.
In the archive now
Continue reading
- Kapital: Patchwork, Indigo and the Spirit of Kojima
- READYMADE
- Kimono Glossary
- Encyclopedia entry · The Fashionista Bible
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Index terms: cote mer · cote mer harajuku · norio sato · broke city gold · kantaland · reconstructed vintage · kimono obi jacket · upcycled japanese fashion · conversion of values