Mountain Research

… Research is a Japanese fashion label that fills in the ellipses with a subject of design study. Each collection is a research of the quintessential aspects of functionality and durability as well as the underlying philosophies and attitudes of the lives they bolster. One constant for designer Setsumasa Kobayashi has been the mountains. Also the owner of Cow Books that specializes in out-of-print books from subversive authors, activists, poets, and social pioneers, Kobayashi fuses the language of progressive art into rugged clothes.

Each season his team of designers clear their minds from the concrete of Tokyo and travel into the Chichibu Mountain Range where Kobayashi has had built an architectural campground called Mountain Research. While they steward the land, chop wood, and commune around the fire pit, they discuss the direction of each collection. Mountain Research is inspired by the utility and personality of a refined life outdoors. 

“The doors to extraordinary are open in a piece of clothing.”

Read more about Mountain Research in our Back-Story, Fully Encompassed Research