An Interview with AURALEE's Ryota Iwai

The founder and designer on his vintage wardrobe, Kith, making clothes from scratch, and the brand's next ten years.

A while back on a Boyz Only pod I said if I could only pick four brands for the rest of my life, AURALEE is for sure making the list. I don’t remember when I first learned about the brand—my guess is from perusing the expertly considered selection at Mohawk General Store—but every season since sees another piece from the Japanese label become one of my most-frequented jawnz.

If you’re lucky enough to even have put hands on any AURALEE product, let alone brought some home, you already know what makes it so special. Personally, beyond the actual garments, it’s the polarized abstractions of soft/powerful and present/timeless simultaneously clashing and co-existing that bring me back time and time again.

But that’s just me, and why am I still yapping? This is starting to feel like one of those recipe links where the author explains how growing up as the middle child gave them an introvert’s appreciation for confit tomatoes. Enough!

To get a deeper appreciation of the creative sensibilities that go into such an exceptional brand, I tapped in with AURALEE’s founder and designer Ryota Iwai for a conversation on how developing materials from scratch informs the final garments, uncommon inspirations, and what the next 10 years for AURALEE might look like.