One of the most important types of denim in recent years has been Oni’s Secret Denim. First launched in 2012, the Secret Denim has been one of the most desirable denim fabrics by Denim Heads around the world due to its unique texture and incredible softness and comfort. Only Oishi-San can produce this denim, and no one else can reproduce it. He uses extra-thick yarns of three different kinds of cotton woven at ultra-low tension in a vintage shuttle loom. The result is a beefier, extremely knotty unsanforized 20oz fabric with a fantastic slub, roughness and hairy texture.
For this Aizumi x Black secret denim version, Oishi-San experimented with over-dying denim. He wanted to pursue an ink style dye effect without the use of over-dye, and the subsequent series of experiments over the past years resulted in the Aizumi. Aizumi brings together the Japanese words for indigo (aizome) and black (sumi) denim. First, the warp is rope-dyed in aizumi (indigo and black), and then, the weft is rope-dyed in black. The mix of these two dying methods has produced a pair of jeans that is incredibly dark in colour. The slubby, low tension denim is a detailed heavyweight with a unique patina. By wearing it many times, the surface layer of the warp threads will be scraped off, and the greyish indigo navy blue will begin to appear little by little.
The jeans are made with all the superior-quality ONI details such as black-coated doughnut buttons and hardware (to match the dark tone of the denim), high-quality pocket bags, heavy-duty bar tacks and a custom veg-tanned deerskin indigo-dyed leather patch.
The cut is the ONI's 679 strong tapered fit. The taper is pretty aggressive so that it gives a slim-fitting silhouette while allowing for a lot of space at the thighs with a high rise.
The legend of ONI is alive to this day. In recent years Oishi-San has devoted himself to experimenting with widely varying grammages, rough textures, different indigo dyeing techniques and novelty cuts while always maintaining a very limited production and wielding his experience in denim which now goes back more than 60 years.
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