Edwin
One of the first Japanese denim companies, Edwin was founded in 1947 by KK Tsunemi a true denim devotee. The name Edwin being an anagram of the word denim with an inverted M, Tsunemi originally imported second hand, used and worn American denim to Japan as at the time there were no Japanese denim producers. Denim wasn’t produced in Japan until 1951 and even then it was sub-par to its American counterparts.
Mr Tsunemi not happy with the home-grown offerings so spent time to develop his own denim to his own standards and by 1961 Edwin produced its first pair of jeans and by 1963 produced it’s now famous 16oz ring-sun ‘rainbow selvedge’ denim, the heaviest the world has seen.
Tsunemi’s and Edwin’s real claim to denim fame is their invention of the pre-wash and stone washing process of jeans drawing inspiration from the original worn out denim Tsunemi originally started importing back in 1947.
Edwin is now one of the largest denim manufacturers producing high quality affordable Japanese denim and vast array of denim weights and washes.