Traditional Japanese Goes Gangsta

Japanese denim is already known to be revolutionary. And yet, Japanese men's jeans are now moving in a new, innovative direction: back to tradition. The emerging crop of hand-painted jeans are canvases for old school pictures like koi fish, temple gates and ukiyo-e style waves. The painting is done by yu-zen, a traditional dyeing technique practiced in the old capital of Kyoto.

"There's 1200 years of history of artisans in this city, but now young people are opening up to learning about the techniques" according to Wappa, a company that makes baggy jeans with dancing goldfish painted on the thigh. Clothing label Little Romance also carries a line of hand painted jeans, but takes it even further with back pockets and other accents made of bamboo mats and silk edging. Its PR representative Yasuaki Matsumoto says, "It's totally 3-D! We're really interested in mixing the old with the new."

The trend began in small artisan shops in Kyoto, but is now a full-blown fashion subset that's popular with the "Yankii" or "casual punks," who pair it with hoodies and orange hair. The style mimics the modern Yakuza ("mafia"), who wear silk embroidered jackets with similar motifs. A pair of jeans on premium denim with an original hand painted tiger pouncing on swirling clouds, for example, will run about $300, but the unique aspect surely trumps the triple-digit price.

—Misha Janette