The crucial element that is being sold at shops like Brand Select Recycle is scarcity.
I first heard of him from the owner of Brand Select Recycle, who told me that the designers of Bathing Ape and Number Nine were "disciples" of Fujiwara.
The prices these clothes will fetch if they ever make it to the racks of Brand Select Recycle just don't bear thinking about.
For eight consecutive weeks beginning this week, contestants will compete in a weekly category like appetizers or entrees, with the brand selecting two finalists for each theme.
It was America's sweetheart Brooke Shields who said nothing came between her and her Calvins, but if an Australian denim brand selected one of us to spruik its products, she'd definitely declare "nothing comes between me and my skinnies".
And a mainstream designer label like Comme des Garçons had little heat in the Brand Select Recycle marketplace; you could buy a secondhand Comme shirt for fifty-eight hundred yen, or forty-four dollars.
He doesn't set most of the prices at Brand Select Recycle, he explained to me; they are established by the individual consigners of the items, who pay him a commission.
But Takeuchi explained that his customers weren't simply slaves to a label: he showed me a Bathing Ape chunky knit cardigan, its wooden buttons carved with images of apes; the style hadn't taken off when it was first released to stores, and now Brand Select Recycle was offering it for just a hundred and ninety-four dollars, much less than its original cost.
It would be easy, while squeezing through the crowds on a Saturday afternoon, to miss a store called Brand Select Recycle, which is marked only by a blue sign pointing up a narrow staircase, painted with the names of designer labels — Under Cover, Bathing Ape, Gucci, Prada, and, spelled incorrectly, Martin Margaiela.
For the Louis Vuitton collaboration, Mr. Nugroho created six large oil paintings, with the brand selecting one for production — "Republik Tropis," which portrays a mythical creature whose body is made of tropical fruits and vegetables, with two masked faces peering through the twisted amalgamation.
