Hi everyone! Pretty excited to get to sit down and tell you about Jelado. Definitely not a brand for the aficionado, just a brand made by aficionados.
The scoop on Jelado is a very curious and awesome one. Spoiler, click the link below!
For reference, the owner and operator of Jelado, Yohei Goto, is a competitive kickboxer. His passion lies in the fight and the fight for exquisite vintage clothing.
His passion in a business sense lies in the latter, but the desire to make pieces that are confrontational, if not aggressive, in their design is evident — pieces made by Jelado are battle-ready, robust and often demanding of attention. Not unlike a vintage M-65 field jacket or a good pair of combat boots.
What initially drew us in to Jelado was their line of sweats. (Jelado does have numerous lines — military, sport, cowboy, rockstar…you name it). The sweatshirts and hoodies were arresting.
Having a fantastically knit base of a conventional sweatshirt, what separates Jelado’s hoodies is unique and only seen on the highest quality hoodies in Japan — the hood is sewn on after. Thus, the hood is much more secure, fuller and larger.
Before you ask…no, that is a sticker. But the hood is designed to! Goto’s approach with his hoodies is admirable — he’s looking to produce garments that adhere to the manufacturing specifications of the hoodies made decades ago.
These are top of the line. Another thing we love about that is how much more coverage you get with a hood scooped like that. Can’t beat that if you tried.
A lot of our brands look to The West. The West is, after all, the OG of the denim world. In the world of high-end clothing, this source of inspiration is rather unremarkable, but the end results are certainly one-of-a-kind.
Goto started working in a vintage clothing shop when he was young and was struck by the character and beauty of vintage Levi’s:
Easy to see how inspiring something of beauty can be. Even easier to see how passion can grow. Goto started working at a retailer at the age of eighteen, surrounded by things that inspired him. In a year he owned the place.
If that isn’t passion, we don’t know what is. Another reason we love these pieces:
Only makes sense he was driven to slowly develop his line.
Some of Jelado’s early patches played on patch designs from The West, with twin pistols on the leather. Classic western wear meets classic Americana. He was inspired to look at what a killer may wear. While that may seem nuts, hear us out — his inspiration is from sparring, pop culture and so many other things — he was looking to develop the perfect pieces that would look good on even killers from over a half century ago.
And there’s zero actual violence to it. Only art: Back then people dressed well, no matter who they were.
His inspiration also exists in things beyond military and vintagewear — advertisements, popular culture like movies and television, art and more — Goto surrounds himself with beautiful things that make him want to be part of a different era. We definitely feel as if we are inside of his clothes.
Jelado caters to hippies with the “Rockstar Garments” line, with less skinny legs and wonderfully printed flower child shirts. They cater to collectors, to seekers of quality, to musicians: They have an inspiration for a shirt from Robert Johnson, delta blues guitarist and first member of the unfortunate “27 Club,” allegedly poisoned in a juke joint after a night of expert slide guitar playing.
Johnson’s influence, like many others, is great (he actually is Rolling Stone’s guitarist Keith Richards’ biggest influence, and literally countless others, despite his mere 29 recordings) and to have Jelado produce a garment as such is telling — Jelado isn’t just inspired by a time or by one culture. Jelado makes quality garments for everyone, all the time.
Really makes us stoked to see each and every piece Jelado produces.
Nothing is entirely surprising, but everything is refreshing, reminiscent of a past age and somehow fresh in that it evokes more than just nostalgia.
Jelado’s pieces seem to evoke all the best qualities of the past century. And to drape yourself in those qualities…that’s why we’re here. That’s why we wear Jelado.