Takahashi Lambda's style code.
Vol.3 Down jacket

The third theme is down jackets. This time, he brought two down jackets from The North Face. When did you first come into contact with this brand's down jacket?

The first one I bought was a black and purple Nuptse, I think I was 19. I wanted something American, so I went to a parallel import store like Neverland and paid a lot of money for something young, but I managed to get it.

Is that a longing for American things?

That's right. To me, North's down jackets have a strong image of being "New York outerwear." The locals layer up multiple layers of clothing to keep out the freezing cold, and then put on a down jacket on top of that. I was attracted to that puffed-up, bloated look and round silhouette. The ones designed for Japan are smartly shaped to suit the Japanese body type, but I was looking for a more unfashionable, fatter shape.

In the episode about stadium jackets, you said, "Round, unsophisticated shapes are what's in style right now."

Another reason I was drawn to the American-designed jackets was the influence of the Harajuku culture at the time. I saw NIGO and the members of M&M (a group that handled the store design and interiors of stores such as NOWHERE) wearing the American-designed North jackets in real time, and I was really fascinated by them. Even though they were stuffed to the brim with down, the length was short and the sleeves were abnormally long, so it was really difficult to pull off (laughs).