In Review: Perfectly Strange - The Kapital 10 oz. Denim Ring Coat

It's hard to believe that Kapital has been around since 1984, and how the brand has managed to stay relatively hidden all these years is as equal a mystery. Maybe we just weren't ready until now to toe the fine line between interesting design and absurdity Kapital has danced across since Kiro Hirata took the helm from his father over ten years ago. In recent years, though, the brand has been garnering more attention with its unique and quirky point of view as well as its use of interesting textiles and innovative construction techniques. Here we'll be taking a closer look at arguably its most iconic garment, the Ring Coat, a piece of outerwear I've been excited about for years. I finally found one for the right price in Japan, and for the past week I've been taking it through its paces, which means going down the street to get some Popeyes, or wearing it on the couch rewatching Breaking Bad, eating Popeyes.

Design, Materials, and Construction

Also pictured: Socks - CHUP, Hat - Vintage Adam, Boots - Red Wing, Pants - Hill-Side x Gap, Belt - Thirteen50

Japanese Americana can be roughly split into two camps - one that specializes in vintage reproduction (brands like The Real McCoys and Buzz Rickson's), and a second, more creative reinterpretation that's evolved into an entirely new concept altogether. It's to this group that Kapital belongs and arguably heads, forging its own vision at once both foreign and familiar, as if taken from an alternate universe just one degree removed from our own. In this sense, the Kapital Ring Coat is the perfect gateway drug into this side of the genre. It's weird without being really weird, somehow managing to be visually captivating but not overwhelming.

At its core, the coat is a double-breasted garment with a convertible oversized hood that collapses down into a large shawl collar, with a drawstring waist, hood, and hem, sleeves finished with hidden ribbed cuffs, and four patch pockets similar in placement to a military field coat. The design is indeed loosely based on an M-65, but its proportions are exaggerated, stretched and laid out in big, sweeping lines. The length of the coat is also longer in the front than the back, which strikes a really interesting balance, like a reverse fishtail parka of sorts. All in all, the design draws in elements that leave impressions part military jacket, part kimono, and perhaps a little part Nazgûl.

"Nice coat."

These days, Ring Coats come in all flavors and colors of the rainbow, but the most well-known are made in brushed cotton, melton wool, and denim. The denim version is crafted from a soft 10 oz. indigo twill which, for reference, is slightly lighter in weight than your standard pair of jeans. Vertical contrast stitching runs along the line of the hood/collar, one of my favorite design details about this model which sets it apart from others in the line. And fastened once upon a time with metal ring hardware, modern Ring Coats now feature a conventional button closure at the pockets and placket.

Finally, the hood bears special mention, given just how unique it is. It can take three forms, in ascending order of nuttiness: 1) buttoned completely down and collapsed inside of the coat, what you'll see most commonly 2) folded over slightly to form a huge hood, and 3) extended completely without buttoning aka full Dementor mode. Unless you're summoning demons, I prefer the first version myself.

Fit, Sizing, and Styling

Also pictured: Shirt - Gitman Vintage, Pants - The Hill-Side x Gap

I'm 5' 10", 140-145 lbs. I wear a size S in most US brands and a 36R to 38R in suiting. For the Ring Coat, I took a size 2, which equates to a medium in conventional Asian sizing. In general, Asian sizes run a size smaller than in the US, though that's not a hard and fast rule by any means.

Also pictured: Sweater - Roberto Collina, Pants - Uniqlo U

For tailored clothing, you have small allowances that demand a great deal of precision. Oversized garments are almost the opposite - call it more of a feel than a set of rules. That being said, the thing that seems to vary most in a meaningful way between Ring Coat sizes is the length in body and sleeve. What I've found helpful is to compare sizes in fit pictures from around the net (unless you happen to have a local store close by that carries Kapital) with your own measurements. Styleforum's Kapital thread has some good information as do several merchant sites and Japanese blogs, which have a common habit of posting the stats of their employees for fit pictures. Be aware, though, that you'll never see a Japanese fit with a guy in a size 4, so it's probably more useful if you're closer to small/medium American.

I've been wearing mine for the past week or so in temperatures in the 50s, for which it's perfectly comfortable with just a light shirt underneath. Given the size of the coat, though, it should be easy to layer a sweater, another light coat, or a family of raccoons underneath it for colder days, and the hidden cuffs do a great job of adding insulation to what would be wizarding sleeves otherwise. The only reservation I'd have, specifically with the denim version, is that I'd be wary of wearing it in rainy weather. I've no confirmation specific to this particular garment, but Japanese designers are usually fanatical about using natural indigo dye, and Kapital was literally named for Kojima, the "denim capital" of Japan. I'd be surprised if the coat didn't bleed, at least a little.

You might find it strange to discover that such a unique article of clothing is so surprisingly easy to wear. On the spectrum of wearability, if we were going to call jeans and a flannel shirt 1 and a fedora a 9 or 10, I'd say the Ring Coat lands somewhere around a 6.5. It's remarkably simple to pair and forgiving with most of the casual clothes you probably already own - you can wear it with anything you'd throw a field coat, parka, or big chunky cardigan over. For more inspiration, I'd recommend checking out Gerry Nelson AKA Gezza's Eyes, who sports his collection of Ring Coats probably better than anyone around, as well as this fit model for Independence Chicago.

Summary and Conclusions

I was watching Netflix's food documentary "Ugly Delicious" the other night, and chef David Chang takes Aziz Ansari to eat what he says is the best pizza in the world he's ever had - in Japan. Commenting on Japan's unique cultural history of assimilating and evolving their favorite things, chef Susumu Kakinuma of Seirinkan pizza kitchen in Tokyo notes, "Everything was imitation at first. Everything. The music, the food, everything started as a copy. But I think Japanese people are good at taking something and making it their own, making it original." 

I think that sums up the creative side of Japanese Americana as a whole, Kapital as a brand, and the Ring Coat in particular. It perfectly straddles the line between East and West, innovative design and wearability. To be fair, much of what Kapital does I find to be much too much, but what's undeniable there is always present a unique and masterful balancing act of Japanese ingenuity and design. To quote Jonathan Lucacek of The Bandanna Almanac, "I think Kapital is the only company in the world that can make the clothing that it makes. Other companies couldn't do it. They wouldn't do it right." I would agree.

If you're interested in buying a Ring Coat of your own, you can find them at Unionmade, Independence Chicago, Blue in Green Soho, and Cotton Sheep (which I've written about before). Fair warning, they're not cheap, starting out around $600 with the wool coats being even more expensive (not to even mention some of the more exclusive editions, such as the boro versions). So if you're into the style but are on a leaner budget, do yourself a favor and buy one used off the secondhand Japanese market. In total, I paid about $220 USD shipped off of Yahoo! Japan, which is a far cry from MSRP in the US and substantially less than you'll typically find on eBay and Grailed by an average of $100-200. If you need a primer on how to use a proxy, here's a post I wrote about the process, and here is the search I use myself for Ring Coats on Yahoo! Japan auctions (some quick math for JPY to USD: simply move the decimal point over two spots and you'll have a rough sense of dollars). Keeping tabs on that list every week or so, you're bound to come across a few gems.

If you have your own Ring Coat I'd love to hear about your experiences, things you've found have worked well (or not), etc. Even with all the recent exposure, it's still a relatively exclusive club to belong to.