Post Overalls Designer
Born in Tokyo in 1962. After moving to New York in 1987 and working as a freelance vintage buyer, he founded his own original brand POST O'ALLS in 1993, inspired by American workwear and military garments of the past. In 2018, he moved his base to Tokyo and opened a flagship store in Nakameguro. His vintage archive is extremely diverse, with workwear at the forefront.
Instagram: @takeshi_ohfuchi
When did you start wearing coveralls and becoming interested in American workwear?
I think I was around 22 or 23 years old. At that time, I often went to second-hand clothing stores such as "Santa Monica", "Metro Gold", "Delaware", "Banana Boat", and "Supreme" which no longer exists. Of course, I also went to Ameyoko to look for jeans and denim jackets such as Levi's® XX from my mid-teens, but I remember that it was around 1984 that I started to look for workwear such as coveralls and overalls.
Do you remember the first coveralls you got? Also, what was the workwear situation like at the time?
I think it was either the Payday I'm wearing today or the Super Payday I'll introduce later. These were the triggers that got me hooked on coveralls. At the time, it was a category that was hardly recognized by the general public, so the prices were cheap. There were no rivals, so I think it was an environment where it was easy to find old and rare items.
What was it about it that attracted you?
Until then, I had been wearing five-pocket jackets with short jackets such as denim jackets and flight jackets, but the long coveralls somehow felt more elegant. I could wear them with a sense of tailored jacket, and I was also attracted to the fact that I could wear them over a jacket like an overcoat.
I heard that he continued collecting them even after he moved to New York.
Yes. I moved to New York in 1987, and while I was attending school, I would go to Brooklyn and other places to look for used clothing and deadstock whenever I had free time. At the time, American vintage buyers mainly bought Hollywood-style items from the 1940s and 1950s, such as Hawaiian shirts and gabardine shirts, and Ivy League-style items from the 1960s, and no one had paid attention to denim workwear yet, so it remained untouched. In particular, New York, where I moved to, has a large population, and since the main population were workers in factories and ports rather than farmers, there were a large number of items made of various materials such as denim, stripes, and duck. That's how I got even more into it.
In Japan, they are called coveralls or railroad jackets, but did they originate from railroad workers?
I don't know for sure, but this style must have existed before railroads became common. American clothing from the 1800s to the early 1900s started out as workwear, but was brought over by people who immigrated from Europe, and didn't go much beyond that category. At the time, there was no concept of casual wear, and I think there were only two types of clothing: formal wear, suits, and everyday clothing, which was mainly work clothes. As the 1900s arrived and U.S. Steel, the world's largest steel company, was founded and various industries flourished, clothing for American workers gradually began to be mass-produced, and industrial design became the mood of the era, almost at the same time as the transition from Art Nouveau to Art Deco and then to the Machine Age. Naturally, this trend was also reflected in workwear, which evolved in sync with the times. I think that the 1930s was a very dense period for workwear.
I often hear from experts that vintage work is more likely to come out of the East Coast than the West Coast, but are there any other regional characteristics like that?
Of course, store brands are all over the US, and there are local brands like Stronghold on the West Coast, so it's hard to say they were all concentrated on the East Coast, but there are certainly many old industrial cities in the East, including New England and Pennsylvania, where workwear was more popular. Also, while farmers in rural areas mostly wore denim, duck was popular among steelworkers, factory workers, and other urban workers who disliked the tendency of denim to fade. Personally, I like the free-spirited mood of the West Coast, but when it comes to workwear, I'm drawn to designs that are more industrial and east-oriented.
What age are the personal items you brought with you this time?
These are from the 1910s to 1940s. In the early days, many of them had three pockets, no collar stand, and shirt-like cuffs, influenced by European workwear. In the late 1920s and 1930s, many deluxe designs with four pockets, engineer cuffs, chin straps, and change buttons appeared. Meanwhile, in the 1940s, they moved to the so-called "war" specifications, which were forced to be simplified in various ways due to material control during the war. After that, in the 1950s after the war, more productive designs became mainstream, and the coverall template that continues to this day, with no collar stand, four pockets, and sewn buttons, was completed. In other words, if the evolutionary process was from the dawn to the mid-1930s, it can be said that after that, they gradually moved toward simplification.
Mr. Ohbuchi, do you think the pre-simplification version is more attractive?
No, actually, I can't say that for sure, and it's certainly not the case that something is good just because it's old. I've looked at a lot of coveralls up until now, but it just so happens that most of the ones I actually wanted to wear as fashion were from older eras, and to be honest, I still haven't found the ideal one that I'm looking for. It's because I haven't found the ideal one that I started the brand. Even though it's vintage, it's still fashion at its core, so what's important to me is that it feels good to wear, is affordable, and I can wear it without worrying about the little things.
Prices for coveralls are currently soaring worldwide, but where should beginners start?
Of course, vintage clothing has its own charm. However, since it was not designed as fashion, many of the items are not very comfortable to wear or compatible with today's fashion. Therefore, I would like you to try on the items and find something that suits your style without being too concerned about age or novelty. If we are limited to vintage clothing, designer items that are inclined towards American workwear, such as Armani Jeans from the 1980s and 1990s, are also interesting.
In the wake of the Great Depression that broke out in 1929, the Roosevelt administration implemented the New Deal, an economic recovery measure aimed at reducing unemployment. By temporarily putting a stop to excessive consumption and production, and by placing emphasis on public works and providing generous support to workers, the demand for workwear grew rapidly, and specialized brands sprang up all over the United States. What are the five models that Obuchi has selected from the archives covering the early days of US workwear, spanning from the wartime period?
From an extinct brand from Seattle on the West Coast. A raglan sleeve model with four pockets. "The shape of the pocket for a pocket watch on the left chest, which we also call the 'Tortoiseshell Pocket', is unique. At that time, each brand had their own unique design for the Tortoiseshell Pocket, perhaps to differentiate themselves from other brands. Although it is an early model, it is packed with deluxe designs for the time, such as four pockets + an inner pocket and a slightly large donut button with a logo."
Founded in Detroit, Michigan in the 1880s, Carhartt is a prestigious brand that continues to support real workers around the world. "Carhartt is one of the long-established brands that has been known for its luxurious details since its early days. Each company engraved their brand name to appeal to their uniqueness and name value, and we can see that they were one of the early adopters of the change button, which became a representative detail of the 1930s. Riveted cuffs are also a design that is rarely seen in other companies."
A minor brand from Pennsylvania. "I feel that the three pockets, drop shoulders, and flared A-line, which are unique to the dawn of the era, could be adopted by modern sensibilities. In particular, many of the designs made before the 1930s, which was the golden age of workwear, were simple, with simple cuff designs and quite a few short lengths. The front button was missing, so we replaced it with one made by another company, except for the top button."
This work brand was developed by JC Penney, one of the three major American stores, known for running Big Macs and other chains. "It is a deluxe version of Payday, named after the Super. The most distinctive feature of the Super is that it uses shrink-proof denim, which had just been introduced at the time. In addition to the latest processing technology, it is luxuriously fully equipped with four pockets, a chin strap, engineer cuffs, etc. External brand tags, which can be said to be a typically American idea, were used early on in Payday's case, from the late 1920s."
The simple design, which seems to go against the trend of the Golden Age when deluxe jackets were the norm, is unique to the wartime era when materials were under strict control. Like the famous denim jacket Levi's® 506, it uses pre-made laurel buttons. "Despite being a wartime model, it is a rare item with a chin strap. The usual wartime model has four buttons on the front, but for some reason it has five buttons plus one. The narrow space between the top and second buttons is a detail usually seen on older items. It has details that are not typical of wartime, but it doesn't feel like it was made during any other period."
Instagram: @postoalls
postoveralls.com
Post O'Alls NAKAMEGURO
Address: 1-5-10-105 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
Time: 12:00-19:00
