The flagship store of the Japanese clothing brand Auralee is tucked away in a quiet corner of Aoyama, Tokyo’s premier fashion-shopping district. It’s just a hair away from the main drag’s bustle, but if you don’t know where the store is, you will never stumble upon it. The shop’s location reflects Tokyo’s retail scene, where the coolest stores operate on an if-you-know-you-know basis.
In the past several years, Auralee has become a closely guarded secret of fashion-world cognoscenti, whose previous brand of choice was the Row. Auralee, with its sumptuous fabrics, a cocoon-like silhouette, and almost fanatical attention to detail, is a worthy successor to the Olsen twins’ sophisticated, drapey, terminally stylish—but no longer niche—brand. In the finest fashion boutiques and at the important shows, Auralee’s name has come to evoke a mix of enthusiasm and hushed reverence.
All of this seems somewhat unbelievable to Ryota Iwai, Auralee’s designer, whose demeanor is entirely unassuming. We met at the end of November, an hour before the store opened.
Iwai speaks with the kind of contemplation befitting someone who thinks carefully about the most minute things. You can see this thoughtfulness reflected in the clothes, starting with a sweatshirt, whose brushed interior feels more like cashmere than cotton, and ending with spongy wool coats that look substantial but are almost unbelievably light.
Everything Iwai designs starts with the fabric, and he works with his suppliers on each material, from yarn to cloth. It took Iwai more than several trips to Inner Mongolia to convince the local growers to supply him with baby cashmere, whose softness borders on paranormal. When I asked Iwai to show me some of his favorite garments, he spoke with a scientist’s delight about how he mixes the fine wool of the fabric’s weft with the Shetland wool of its warp for a herringbone coat that somehow looks both new and lived-in.
Iwai started Auralee in 2015, in the middle of the new wave of nouveau riche wealth creation and logo-mania that made the 1980s look tame by comparison.
“At the time, a lot of fashion felt loud and a bit extreme, and I wanted to create a brand that allowed people to be comfortable, to be themselves,” he says.
The fashion industry in Tokyo, and in the rest of the world, was centered around glammed-up events, which was foreign to Iwai, who neither parties nor drinks. He wanted to make clothes for everyday life. To his surprise, the reception of his first collection was positive from both the Japanese press and buyers, signaling that he was not alone in his desire for everyday sophistication. And now, as the current tsunami of logos has subsided slightly and talk of “quiet luxury” has increased, things have clearly turned in Iwai’s favor.
Many brands that succeed in Japan are not particularly interested in expanding abroad, for the simple reason that they don’t have to—the retail market there tends to be healthy enough to sustain a fashion business. So Iwai was not specifically setting his sights on the global market. But in 2019 he won the Fashion Prize of Tokyo, which led to the opportunity for Auralee to show in Paris. To Iwai’s surprise, the international buyers responded with the same level of enthusiasm that the Japanese did. The rest, as they say, is history.
By the end of our interview, the store had opened and inconspicuously stylish shoppers started trickling in. Later that day, at Isetan, Tokyo’s fashion-forward department store, the Auralee concession was also abuzz with activity. Now comes the hard part—balancing success with the insider factor.
This year, Auralee collaborated with New Balance and Tekla, the popular Danish sleepwear company. There was also an eyebrow-raising tie-up with Kith, the hypebeast emporium. But Iwai seems intent on keeping his nose to the grindstone. This year will mark Auralee’s 10th anniversary. For many brands, that would provide a major marketing opportunity. Iwai plans to just work.
Eugene Rabkin is the founder and editor of StyleZeitgeist and the author of Stone Island: Storia. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Business of Fashion, and other publications
