Up for sale here is a shirt from Japan’s Eternal label, one of the somewhat older and more established “American casual” labels operating out of Japan. Eternal steers pretty strongly toward denim pieces, as they manufacture a full range of jeans and denim jackets, although they produce a full range of clothing as well. Eternal is based in Kojima city, basically the center of Japan’s workwear and denim industries, and are able to take advantage of the manufacturing available in the region. Kojima seems to have a strong concentration of both expertise and vintage looms actually, hence the concentration of denim manufacturers in the area. Like a number of other labels based in the city, including Kapital, Momotaro and Spellbound, most Eternal pieces are done on vintage looms as well.
In this case we have Eternal’s take on the classic button down shirt. There are some interesting details added here. For one, the shirt uses two different cotton fabrics: the front being a chambray with a white polka dot pattern and the collar and rear in a solid gray weave. Buttons are all vegetable ivory with side gussets and interior button placket lined in a red, white and blue striped cotton. In all it is a pretty unique piece, very well done in design and execution.
These pieces are also pretty rare, where as far as I can tell Eternal does not have any distribution outside of Japan, and they maintain a pretty minimal web presence as well. Production runs are pretty small and only specialist shops in Japan tend to stock them. The lack of availability is really a shame, as the quality here easily rivals that of any of the bigger labels.
Size is labeled 40 and fits like a medium. I measure the chest at 21”, shoulders at 18”, and length at 27” in front and 28” in back, both from the base of the neck. The shirt comes in lightly used, excellent shape with no holes, tears, stains or visible signs of wear. Made in Japan.
Shipping from Japan to anywhere will be $24.