While I was on tour in Osaka – the city everyone says is cooler than Tokyo, to prove how cool they are – with my band T33TH, in between multiple meals of street side takoyaki, I visited two really amazing stores: Excube, a shop/gallery in downtown Osaka selling original Keith Haring jumpers and limited edition Akira laser discs, and Fragile, one of the best t-shirt stores in the world.EXCUBE
VICE: I'm kinda confused, is this a shop or a gallery?
Makato Aono: Half the space is a gallery and the other half is a shop. We've had both fashion and art shows by people like Cavill aka Shogo Yoshikawa, Eguchi Sola, Masagon, Shinichiro Inui, Tabinary, Per Centum%, and The Hibariza. And, next month, we'll be hosting Chicks On Speed's first pop-up store in Japan.What is the fashion and art scene like in Osaka?
The art and music scenes are really interconnected here, so most of the artists and designers we've had shows for at the Excube gallery are also musicians or DJs in local clubs.So what kind of labels do you sell here at Excube?
I really like epoch-defining one-offs by artists, costume designers, and labels like Stephen Sprouse, Patrick Kelly, Xuly Bet, Bodymap, Chicks on Speed, and Christian Joy. Then there's the 80s and 90s surf, skate and BMX gear, Keith Haring gear, and official merchandise from Akira, Ghostbusters, The Simpsons and Batman. We also sell labels like Per Centum%, Masagon, Pussymo, H.A.A, Tabinary, and Claw Money.How did you come to own a fashion boutique?
I used to be a buyer for a Japanese boutique called Cube for 10 years, between 1995 and 2006. We mainly imported overseas designers, so I visited London and Paris a lot back then. I was just 20 when I started out as a fashion buyer. I had a bit of a crisis at the age of 30 and I couldn't decide if I should go on or not. At the time I couldn't find any designer clothing that satisfied me and it seemed people were just after fast fashion. So I left fashion and spent five years in semiconductor business.Say, what?
I actually studied architecture and a little bit of electronics back in university, but all that time I worked for the semiconductor guy I was dreaming of having my own gallery and shop, so I left and opened Excube about two years ago.Tell us more about your shop. Like, why is it called Excube?
I opened this shop by myself after working at Cube for years. I learned so much there and that shop will always be my roots, so I decided to call my place Excube. I like to shuffle all kinds of people into Excube: gallery goers, fashion victims, musicians, artists, and so on. I always try and make something happen. We have a lot of opening parties, that's why those decks are by the cash register, and we always bring interesting people to the space. We also collaborate with our exhibitors on decorating the space.Which Osaka labels should we be looking at?
Tabinary.FRAGILEVICE: Whoa, like 80 percent of the store is band t-shirts. What's up with that?
Nariyoshi Aochi: We buy t-shirts from bands like Pictureplane, Health, and Master Suspiria Vision. We buy some tees from Aphex Twin and Björk, but we try to find the special editions, like the white version of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures tee. Obviously black metal has been very popular for years now, and we have shirts from bands like Bathory, Burzum and Darkthrone. We also stock tees by brands like NVRMND and Мишка.So what's FRAGILE's background?
FRAGILE was established in 1999 by Shinichiro Nakamura. He wanted to combine fashion, music, and art retail. We also have a sister store in LA called Substance.Which labels do your customers buy usually?
Our customers love Komakino, Daniel Palillo, Henrik Vibskov, Boy London, Odyn Vovk and Cassette Playa. New labels we're excited about are NVRMND and Australian brand Saxony.Do you sell anything here that was made specifically for the shop?
We don't make our own stuff but we do collabs like the one we did with Odyn Vovk this year.What's the biggest difference between Osaka and Tokyo?
Tokyo style follows people like Lady Gaga and the J-pop guys, whereas Osaka is more indie.
Makato Aono: Half the space is a gallery and the other half is a shop. We've had both fashion and art shows by people like Cavill aka Shogo Yoshikawa, Eguchi Sola, Masagon, Shinichiro Inui, Tabinary, Per Centum%, and The Hibariza. And, next month, we'll be hosting Chicks On Speed's first pop-up store in Japan.
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The art and music scenes are really interconnected here, so most of the artists and designers we've had shows for at the Excube gallery are also musicians or DJs in local clubs.So what kind of labels do you sell here at Excube?
I really like epoch-defining one-offs by artists, costume designers, and labels like Stephen Sprouse, Patrick Kelly, Xuly Bet, Bodymap, Chicks on Speed, and Christian Joy. Then there's the 80s and 90s surf, skate and BMX gear, Keith Haring gear, and official merchandise from Akira, Ghostbusters, The Simpsons and Batman. We also sell labels like Per Centum%, Masagon, Pussymo, H.A.A, Tabinary, and Claw Money.How did you come to own a fashion boutique?
I used to be a buyer for a Japanese boutique called Cube for 10 years, between 1995 and 2006. We mainly imported overseas designers, so I visited London and Paris a lot back then. I was just 20 when I started out as a fashion buyer. I had a bit of a crisis at the age of 30 and I couldn't decide if I should go on or not. At the time I couldn't find any designer clothing that satisfied me and it seemed people were just after fast fashion. So I left fashion and spent five years in semiconductor business.Say, what?
I actually studied architecture and a little bit of electronics back in university, but all that time I worked for the semiconductor guy I was dreaming of having my own gallery and shop, so I left and opened Excube about two years ago.
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I opened this shop by myself after working at Cube for years. I learned so much there and that shop will always be my roots, so I decided to call my place Excube. I like to shuffle all kinds of people into Excube: gallery goers, fashion victims, musicians, artists, and so on. I always try and make something happen. We have a lot of opening parties, that's why those decks are by the cash register, and we always bring interesting people to the space. We also collaborate with our exhibitors on decorating the space.Which Osaka labels should we be looking at?
Tabinary.FRAGILEVICE: Whoa, like 80 percent of the store is band t-shirts. What's up with that?
Nariyoshi Aochi: We buy t-shirts from bands like Pictureplane, Health, and Master Suspiria Vision. We buy some tees from Aphex Twin and Björk, but we try to find the special editions, like the white version of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures tee. Obviously black metal has been very popular for years now, and we have shirts from bands like Bathory, Burzum and Darkthrone. We also stock tees by brands like NVRMND and Мишка.So what's FRAGILE's background?
FRAGILE was established in 1999 by Shinichiro Nakamura. He wanted to combine fashion, music, and art retail. We also have a sister store in LA called Substance.Which labels do your customers buy usually?
Our customers love Komakino, Daniel Palillo, Henrik Vibskov, Boy London, Odyn Vovk and Cassette Playa. New labels we're excited about are NVRMND and Australian brand Saxony.Do you sell anything here that was made specifically for the shop?
We don't make our own stuff but we do collabs like the one we did with Odyn Vovk this year.What's the biggest difference between Osaka and Tokyo?
Tokyo style follows people like Lady Gaga and the J-pop guys, whereas Osaka is more indie.