The Low-Key Japanese Brand I Buy Like a Hoarder

I’m not sure if Unionmade was OrSlow’s first stockist in the US, but the brand’s legend spread fast. In the early days, I remember marveling over fatigue pants that felt truer to the reference than the reference itself, jeans that out-vintage’d half the vintage joints on the market, and chambray shirts that looked like they literally travelled in time to make it to our shelves—all of it produced more meticulously than almost anything else I’d encountered.

A bunch of smaller stores eventually caught on to what the brand was doing, but OrSlow stayed relatively hard to find until somewhat recently. By now, there’s a decent chance you’ve heard of the brand, and maybe even stumbled across it in person. If you haven’t, though, today would be a great time to get familiar with it, because OrSlow is bigger and better than ever.

To wit: the brand’s outerwear alone owns multiple plots of real estate in my head, though this corduroy-trimmed canvas jacket and Harris Tweed coverall currently occupy the bulk of it. Same goes for the recently-introduced French work pants, which might already be in my closet by the time you read this, and this supremely relaxed flannel shirt.

To be clear, I really don’t need more OrSlow in my closet. I still wear the jeans I wrote about here multiple times a week, alternating between them and these slubby, ‘30s-inspired dungarees. I also own a pair of washed black fatigues that are much more washed and much less black than they were the day I got them, single-pleat officer chinos cut in a way I remain in awe of five years later, and an uncertain number of other pairs folded somewhere in my apartment.