Foreign National: why the best Americana comes from overseas

It pisses me off to no end that American heritage brands are doing much cooler stuff overseas. Filson has Red Label in Japan, Carhartt has Work In Progress in Europe. Red Wing and Converse have imprints in Japan that are doing much nicer stuff than their American motherships.

Now, it’s a familiar story for foreign fashion to have a certain je ne sais quoi that helps it fly off the racks in America, but this is different. It’s not just that these overseas products are cooler. No. These foreign imprints of American brands actually have a better grasp of Americana than homegrown Americans do.

Maybe you could write it off as scarcity–these European and Japanese-designed products are harder to find in the US and thus more desirable. Maybe it’s the cut–imprints like Carhartt W.I.P. are cut much leaner than the boxy stuff Carhartt makes for Coal Country. But I think it’s actually something much deeper.

I think foreign people, specifically designers in this case, have a better sense of classic Americana than Americans do. Read this quote from Daiki Suzuki, the Japanese-born designer who started Engineered Garments and was brought in by Woolrich to lead Woolen Mills, their hipper, younger line.

“I discovered American sportswear through movies like ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ Henry Fonda in those coveralls, leather jackets, work boots, wool blazers and newsboy caps made me think about clothes in a new way. These garments were not worn for fashion but for necessity, plus the stark contrast of the film, in black and white, just made him look so epic.”

See, Suzuki was able to learn about Americana in a way Americans can’t. He didn’t grow up in the States so his inspiration could only be drawn from film and television. It wasn’t mixed in with suburban sprawl and Walmart and Chevy Luminas–the stuff that usually sends American designers looking elsewhere for inspiration. He learned about America though its most famous exports: Fonda, McQueen, Newman, Redford, Presley. This is why Suzuki and other foreign-born designers have such a keen eye for what is quintessentially American.  Their sense of Americana wasn’t obscured by America.