Kamakura Shirts, a great friend of Ivy-Style.com, was forced to close its Madison Avenue shop, which was founder Yoshio Sadasue’s longtime dream. Below is a statement from his daughter Nanako, who has taken over the family business.
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Since opening on Madison Avenue in New York on October 30, 2012, our New York store has grown steadily with the patronage of American customers. Nowadays, it has been well received by famous local magazines and blog sites, not to mention gaining the highest evaluation as a shirt shop in New York.
However, the situation in New York and Manhattan changed drastically due to the struggle of the new coronavirus, which caused the people to disappear from the city. In response to the state of emergency, the store was closed for four months. Although the situation was supposed to improve, not only were there no signs of recovery, but the stability of the city is expected to continue to deteriorate and become long-term. Therefore, we decided to withdraw temporarily at the end of December 2020. As you know from daily reports, the situation in New York and Manhattan is more severe than in Japan.
Opening a store in New York has long been a long-cherished wish of the founder, Yoshio Sadasue. It is a pity that we have to withdraw temporarily due to the corona disaster, but we would like to reopen the store when New York revives and regains its vitality. Reopening is a long-cherished wish of all employees. We have eight years of experience and expertise in this area, and above all, we have many customers and 30,000 registered customers. Customers at the New York store have sent many messages such as “I want you to come back soon”, “I feel lonely”, and “I will buy from the global online store from now on”. If the situation in New York returns, I think reopening will not be as difficult as it was when we first opened eight years ago.
For the time being, sales in the United States will be concentrated on our English global online store.
Just coronavirus……?
Yeah…so this happened weeks ago, and the final sale has already concluded.
Really sorry to see them leave, and will certainly continue to use the global online store, so long as NY Slim is still stocked.
“Although the situation was supposed to improve, not only were there no signs of recovery, but the stability of the city is expected to continue to deteriorate and become long-term. ”
This is nonsense. James Altucher is correct, the New York that we’ve known is dead. DiBlasio is a fool. None of that makes the assertion from KS accurate. What I would imagine has changed for them specifically is that people no longer require as many dress shirts. Their model of averting immigration/work visa law by importing young “interns” to staff their store was more than likely under closer scrutiny under the current administration, after all the shop at Brookfield Place closed before the pandemic.
My guess is that the appeal of a vanity shop disappeared when it became too much of a liability and leadership changed.
It is unquestionable that this is a difficult time for New York, but to blanket state that there are no signs of recovery, or that there were “no people” in the city for four months is the sign of a company looking to blame anything but themselves for their failure. Adapt or die.
Meanwhile, Mel Gambert thrives by using heavy Japanese selvedge oxford. J. Press is using Mel.
And Hickey Freeman is back in the Ivy game—big time. More to this story.
Not all the scoops are bad news.
https://libertyshirtco.com/collections/fall-2020-fabrics
Also: Magee just wove a bunch of Dixie weight (10.5 oz.) Shetland tweed. Various patterns.
S.E.,
What’s going on with Hickey Freeman?
Has anyone else in the commentariat bought an Oxford button down from Kamakura recently? I picked up three in white during the final sale. They arrived last week, and I immediately noticed a change in the collar from older Oxfords I have from them. The collar proportions are somehow different, and the new shirts I received have very little collar roll. Can anyone confirm if Kamakura changed their collar pattern on their Oxford button downs?
I like their offerings, but for whatever reason, they don’t carry some of the most popular sizes, such as 16 or 16.5 with 33-34 sleeve length. Their sizing combinations are rather strange and very limited. I wish they introduce shirts in the above-mentioned size combinations. These sizes are very common, and I see no explanation as to why they never carry them. I still hope they reopen in NYC one day! Meanwhile, I’ll be checking their website once in a while. I like their ties. They seem to be of a slightly shorter length than most ties on the market, which is exactly what I need.
I was lucky to pick up a number of shirts, especially from their Ivy Collection. I’m 16.5 with 35.5 in their NY Classic so they usually do not have much offerings for me. However I did lucky out this time around. I spoke to them and they will not be selling their NY line on the global site once they run out. I asked them if there was a Japanese equivalent for my shirt size and they almost burst out laughing saying there are very few Japanese men with my proportions. It will be a loss, but the JPress slim shirts are phenomenal so there’s that.
Countalma, their shirt sizing is a little odd. I typically wear a 16/35 but I buy the 16.5/36.5 size and it is close to perfect. I do get the NY Slim, which isn’t all that slim unless you prefer your shirts baggy.
@RWK
“Can anyone confirm if Kamakura changed their collar pattern on their Oxford button downs?”
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I bought my first Kamakura OCBD in late 2018 in Tokyo; I was expecting the famous Kamakura roll I had heard so much about, and like you, I got a shirt with little roll. So by late 2018 the change was already made.
Kamakura then premiered their “Sport” line with unlined collars, and these seem to have a better, more traditional roll. The “Sport” shirts remind me of Brooks Brothers’ new/old unlined OCBD in terms of cloth weight, collar roll, and structure. Still, they don’t have the distinctive roll which made Kamakura famous amongst OCBD enthusiasts.