Kazuki
Kodaka is the Japanese owner, planner, and designer behind the heritage
menswear brand Adjustable
Costume.
Brand
Overview
- Focus: Recreating and
reinterpreting classic 1920s to 1940s European and American workwear,
tailoring, and vintage civilian clothing.
- Craftsmanship: Known for extreme
attention to detail, traditional production techniques, and
vintage-accurate silhouettes.
- Key Pieces: Meticulously
tailored suits, work jackets, French cyclist jackets from the 1930s, and
historical replicas like the British "Siren Suit".
ADJUSTABLE
COSTUME
https://ttrcrm80.blogspot.com/
Reviving
American Classic to modern time, the designer of “Adjustable Costume”, Kazuki
Kodaka creates the one and only world. “Adjustable Costume” is the fashion
brand which incorporate early American into the modern design. You may not know
it yet, but this brand keeps giving a shock to the classic fashion world.
“Adjustable Costume” attracts people in their twenties, fashion lovers and
overseas vintage fans. His creation of all the design, fabrics and details
fascinate classic fashion lovers. “The he” is the man who is the designer and
the owner of “Adjustable Costume”, Kazuki Kodaka. He plans, designs, and
contacts with the factories all by himself.
He
reproduces the vintage clothes of 1920s～1940s,
sometimes even 1800s, He resized and redesign old clothes to modern clothes by
looking through his own filter. It is hard to find any brands like his neither
in Japan or abroad. We had a great opportunity to interview to Mr. Kodaka (who
thankfully spent 5hours talking to us!), he told us the concept of the brand,
the story of launching and obsession of the design. Let’s reveal the secret of
the fascination of “Adjustable Costume”.
●Contents: Welcome to the fascination of unexpected “Kodaka world” Spice up the brand with the
eccentric uniqueness Recommended standard items of “Adjustable Costume” Being a
craftsman rather than a business person The pass Mr. Kodaka has walked to make
clothes. Everything was for making clothes. “ANCHOR MILLS STORE” the shop you
can purchase the items of “Adjustable Costume”
Welcome
to the fascination of unexpected “Kodaka world” We mentioned in the beginning,
Adjustable Costume is the brand Mr. Kodaka does all his business by himself
including planning, designing, producing, contacting with the factories, sales
and delivery. 「The business has been 9years, since
the beginning I stick to create clothes that I want to create and clothes that
I want to wear. Because of my preference for 1920’s～1940’s clothes, I reproduce vintage clothes but they are not
just replicas, I mix with the classical details with the modern fixed patterns.
I express the feature of Adjustable Costume through my filter. Spice up the
brand with the eccentric uniqueness Classical work style and tailor style are
the two big symbols of the brand. Mostly, the images come from the old movies.
When creating a certain design, he buys the vintage clothes and taking them
apart and making a new pattern from them. To recreate the detail and the design
precisely as they used to be, he checks and makes with slight adjustments. Even
a small item like a casquette, he did find a four-split snap that are no longer
in distribution. It explains how demanding he is to make items close to as they
were before. 「I like American movies like 「God Father」「Taxi Driver」 and 「Sweet and Lowdown」. I try to watch all the movies that are based in 1920’s ～1940’s, so I can check the vintage clothes in them.
Especially, 「God Father」is the movie I don’t remember how many times I watched! In
2022 Spring/Summer collection, I produced silk shantung suit that was worn by
Michel Corleone in 「God Father」.
Mr. Kodaka is also obsessed with the
fabrics. He uses not only vintage fabrics but also his original fabrics weaved
specially for his brand. He has known those factories and fabric shops since
when he worked for a different brand.
（It’s
off the subject but, he always intends to take good care of people who he has
business with. He even tries to make payments in advance which caused some
financial difficulties for himself in the past. He had hit a wall not only once
but people around him always helped him, he says. That proves that he is well
trusted by others because of his sincerity! ）
The finished clothes are very classic
but doesn’t feel old probably because they are sized in a modern way.
For instance, using French or British vintage clothes to put into American
style with a spice of uniqueness, this creates a spirit of ‘Adjustable
Costume’.
“Adjustable Costume” was named with a wish of not to copy
styles from magazines but create and ‘Adjust’ to your own way of styles. Also, ‘Costume’ means to be like a costume shop,
named after the company called ‘Western Costume’ which used to make costumes for
American movies. 「I want my clients to enjoy wearing
clothes as a kind of cosplay and feel different from usual life to cheer them
up. 」 “AjuCos” is the nickname among
brand’s fan.
Recommended standard items of “Adjustable Costume” Because the brand does not follow
every year’s trends, there are few standard items such as Siren suit,
motorcycle coat, Vito suits, Prince of Wales knit of Jamieson’s, and button boots. Here are the
three items chosen from those standard items.
Siren suit Siren suit is a one-piece garment for the whole body invented by
Winston Churchill. It was like boilersuits worn by workers, then the fabric was
changed to suit fabric. 「It was made to wear in times of
emergency, they are quite roomy and comfortable to walk, but if it is too
roomy, it becomes too casual, so you have to be careful with the width checking
to be well balanced. There are female customers to choose Siren suit among
regular users.
Vito suit Reproduction of the classic
single-breasted (slash pocket type) suit worn by Robert de Niro in the movie of
God Father Part Ⅱ. It is made with the vintage fabric ‘Towntex’ of Dormeuil. The suit pants are
slightly narrow and high back design. 「I
actually bought a 1910’s three-pieced suit and take all the details from it and
rebuild it. I playback the movie frame-by-frame, read documents and see photo
books again and again to make this suit. I also studied the width of lapel
thoroughly. 」 You can have this suit pattern
ordered.
Three-pieced corduroy suit French
styled coverall, vest and buggy pants made with indigo dyed corduroy. 「Indigo dyed corduroy increases the charm of texture by wearing
a lot, the color fades out nicely. The shape is regular, but I produce in
different fabrics every time. Some customers like this shape so much, so they
have a few of the suits in different fabrics. The tie is made with the fabric
of William Morris’s “Strawberry thief”. I intentionally wear tie even if it’s a
casual style so you can order to show masculinity. You can purchase these items
separately.
Let’s check other items from his
Instagram!
Being a craftsman rather than being a
business person Since the launch of the brand, its main business is based on
wholesale trade and there is no own store. The reason is to reduce expense as
much as possible so he can focus more on what he determines to create with the
right fabric and right designs. He holds exhibitions twice a year which buyers
and ordinary customers visit. Clients include 10 Japanese stores, 12 overseas
stores mainly in Asia, but now its business is expanding to other countries
such as Germany, Swiss, Russia and Sweden. In the beginning customers average
age group was high but nowadays younger group become good customers. They are,
for example, people who used to wear American casual (one of the distinguish
Japanese fashion culture called Amecaji), people who like British style, and
people who are not so interested in fashion before. Many of the overseas
customers are apparently vintage manias. 「When
I produce, I never think of making trend items to make profit, maybe I should
think in that way but I just make what I really want to make. If profit gets
bigger, I know my company will get bigger, but that is not what I want and try
to do. I should appeal to make customers believe that what I want to do and
what I want to make are good. I want to be a craftsman rather than business
person. 」 The pass Mr. Kodaka has walked to
make clothes. Everything was for making clothes. To talk about Adjustable
Costume, it is an indispensable element to know Mr. Kodaka’s background. When
he was a high school student in around 1990, Amekaji (American casual) was in
trend so he was also the one who wears vintage denim, put on MA-1 and wear
Danner’s boots which were distinguish items of Amekaji. He spent time to go to
vintage clothing stores and collect vintage items. Under the influence of his
father and his brother, at the age of high school student, he wanted to make
clothes and he started to picture his future. He decided to go to the fashion
college, so he got a part-time job in a restaurant and started working after
school to save up money for the college entrance fee. Bunka Fashion College is
the one he chose to go. Fashion college is famous for lots of assignment. It
was very hard finishing assignment, it took him 2hours to go home in
Saitama-prefecture, did part-time job from 5pm to 1am and after that he did his
assignment, then, he made a shirt he was going to wear next day to college. He
had his sleep in the train to college. 「It
was so busy but I bought industrial sewing machine and really enjoyed sewing my
assignment and my own clothes. After I knew how to sew, my fashion preference
become wider and I was deeply hooked on Asian national costume like Indian and
Tibetan. I shaved my head, put on monk’s stole and went to college with no
shoes on! My expression was may be a bit too much, but in a way that was the time
I purely put all my energy to make clothes. 」
When it was the time to find a job, he found a certain brand he wanted to work
in his mind, The design was fascinating. It was FICCE UOMO which was owned by
Mr. Yoshiyuki Konishi (later known as Don Konishi). The brand was famous for
knitting wear but also tailored item were well made. Looking back brand’s
archive Tibetan and Indian were used for collection and it was by far
flamboyant. He begged his friends and acquaintance who may know Mr. Konishi,
using all kinds of way he can think of to get the job at FICCE UOMO (they had
not hired any new employee for past ten years then). Although, his job started
making teas for colleagues but he gained basic knowledge to be a designer for
three years. He says, working for DC brand (Designers & Characters:
Japanese big apparel makers were called ‘D&C brand’ in general terms during
social movement in 1980’s) was a big experience for him. 「Mr. Konishi taught me everything how to make clothes. (You
might not have the image of him in that way when you see him on TV nowadays
but) he was quite edgy then, he used to drive Ferrari, whenever I heard the
sound of the engine my heart skipped a beat and made me stand straight. I still
feel nervous when I see him. It was such a good experience working with him at
that time. 」 After working three years at FICCE
UOMO, his Amecaji soul came back and he worked for The Real McCoys and
Pherrow’s. Both of them, he was offered the jobs because of his real ability
and personality. While he was making casual clothes, he begun to think of
learning how to make suit especially the one in 1930’s ~ 1950’s. Then, he was
offered a job by the brand called Dry Bones and worked for them as a planning
production manager for six years. Dry Bone is the brand which handle American
casual clothes featuring specially 50’s rockabilly and they also handle custom
suit. He experienced making clothes for all those brands, he begun to think 「I want to make clothes that I I want to wear. While I was
still working for Dry Bone, I started thinking of going on my own, so I
finished daily work and then made own clothes without sleeping. It was the same
as when I was a fashion student. I had meetings with sewing factories and had
no weekends off but I started going forward to launch my own brand. 」 After leaving a previous job, he finally held the exhibition
of “Adjustable Costume’s Autumn and Winter collection” on the 26th of April in
2011. It was just after the 311 Earthquake disaster so he was worried if people
come to see a clothing exhibition but there were lot of them visited. There
were only two jackets and a pair of trousers but it was the beginning of
Adjustable Costume. Every season, Adjustable Costume suggests uncompromised
items. Recent years, the distinguish items are more to be introduced such as
original Harris tweed that was specially ordered in Harri Island he visited and
rare astrakhan wool coat. All those items must be irresistible for classic wear
fans. I personally hope that Adjustable Costume stays as it is and Mr. Kodaka
sticks to make clothes he truly loves.
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