Bringing Back The Old By Evisu

One of the most popular brands of clothing lines today is evisu or evisu genes. It is a designer clothing company that specializes in producing premium denim wear through traditional, labor-intensive methods. Founded and manufactured by Hidehiko Yamane in Osaka, Japan, evisu genes became widely recognized across the world for its vintage looks and traditional Japanese fashion. But when and how did all of this started?

It was in 1991 when Hidehiko Yamane formally founded the evisu genes through his research and planning on how to reproduce a perfect pair of vintage jeans. Trained on the old ways of tailoring, Yamane was very disappointed on how far the jeans of today were created from when he was still learning the ways of a tailor.

With his passion and love for vintage jeans, Yamane started his grueling search on how to produce an authentic vintage jean. This needed the gathering together of various bits of machinery, none of which had been produced for the last 40 years, which are required to make authentic vintage jeans.

The initial production line allowed about 14 pairs of jeans a day to be produced and each of them was lovingly hand-painted with the now famous seagull logo (Kamome) by Yamane himself. evisu (also written as Evis or Ebisu) is the name of the Japanese folk god of money who is usually portrayed with a fish and a fishing rod. His name was selected for the new venture as money and fishing are two of Yamane's five favorite things.

Although initially evisu was more a labour of love than a commercial venture, Evisu jeans captured the imagination of the detail-obsessed Japanese fashion crowd, spurring a revival of interest in vintage denim which has now spread across the world. In the early 90's Yamane introduced a tailoring line, followed by fishing and golf lines.

In 1999, he introduced a ladies fashion line called Evisu Donna to complete the development of Evisu as a full-fashion range going far beyond a jeans brand. Evisu now has 65 shops in Japan.

In March, 2006, the company and Yamane was reported to Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office along with another firm on suspicion of tax evasion. Yamane and the two firms stand accused of concealing more than 500 million yen of income as well as evading some 160 million yen in taxes over three years.