SSSTEIN
Another Japanese brand to watch, including a master class in layering.
I already introduced various Japanese brands and after several mentions in past pieces, it's finally time to give SSSTEIN the deep dive it deserves. By the end of last year, the Tokyo-based fashion label captured industry attention by winning the prestigious Fashion Prize of Tokyo — previously awarded to now-established names like Mame Kurogouchi and Auralee. This milestone isn’t just ceremonial; it includes sponsorship to showcase in Paris for two seasons, offering founder Kiichirou Asakawa a springboard to global visibility.
As SSSTEIN steps onto the international stage, comparisons to Auralee are inevitable: both labels share a commitment to quality and quiet minimalism. But SSSTEIN’s path is distinct. Where Auralee’s Ryota Iwai came up through textile innovation, Asakawa’s foundation lies in vintage retail and a philosophy of "serene beauty." The result is a brand that reveres Japanese craftsmanship while reinterpreting it through a modern, architectural lens — often compared to The Row, but with a Tokyo twist.
Origins: From Vintage Shop to Visionary Brand
SSSTEIN’s founding story is a tale of humble beginnings and hands-on learning. Kiichirou Asakawa was born in 1986 in Yamanashi, Japan, and did not follow the typical fashion-school-to-runway route. Instead, his entry into fashion came through working at a Tokyo second-hand boutique called Naichichi, where for six years he immersed himself in garments on a daily basis. Fascinated by how the same clothing could drape and fit differently on various people, Asakawa began deconstructing vintage pieces to study their construction and patterns. This self-taught experimentation nurtured Asakawa’s eye for detail and appreciation for craftsmanship.
When the Naichichi store closed in 2016, Asakawa seized the moment to create something of his own. He opened a select shop in Tokyo called CAROL, curating edgy designer clothes and even launching an innovative denim project – offering custom-fitted vintage Levi’s 501 jeans tailored to each client. The success of these bespoke jeans encouraged Asakawa to take the next leap: in 2017 he launched his own clothing line, SSSTEIN, starting with just three trouser designs. Initially stylized as "Stein," the brand adopted the triple "S" more recently to underline its conceptual core: dualities like stillness and motion, minimal and maximal, mode and tradition.
The early collections sold exclusively at CAROL, giving Asakawa direct feedback from customers. By Spring/Summer 2018, SSSTEIN expanded into tops and coats and entered the wholesale market. This deliberate, ground-up growth allowed the label to evolve with precision, and Asakawa’s hands-on background continues to inform every garment.
Design Philosophy: Quiet Luxury and Serene Aesthetics
At first glance, SSSTEIN’s designs project a sense of calm and understated luxury. The label specializes in clean lines, generous proportions, and meticulous tailoring, creating what one might call a wardrobe of “quiet confidence.” Vogue’s Tokyo correspondent Ashley Ogawa Clarke has dubbed Kiichirou Asakawa “Japan’s high wizard of quiet luxury,” noting that over the past few years he’s turned SSSTEIN into “a subtle force to be reckoned with.” That quiet luxury is evident in SSSTEIN’s choice of palette (mostly neutral tones and earthy hues), its preference for unembellished, flowing silhouettes, and an obsessive focus on fabric quality.
As with many Japanese labels, materials and construction drive the design process and textile development is a point of pride: nearly all of SSSTEIN’s natural fiber fabrics are custom-developed, and even its synthetics are often sourced from renowned Italian mills like Olmetex and Limonta. This results in fabrics that feel as exquisite as they look – whether it’s a heavyweight wool with a glossy finish or a precisely weighted cotton twill. These textiles form the backbone of SSSTEIN’s aesthetic.
Yet, fabric is only one pillar of the design ethos. Asakawa is equally focused on silhouette and proportion. He works closely with pattern makers skilled in classic menswear tailoring, ensuring each piece has a balanced form and that any excess is pared away. The result is clothing that feels purposeful and pure. In an interview, Asakawa explained that an “important aspect of the brand is its serene beauty,” built on “precise patterns that make up ideal silhouettes and the beautiful fabrics that are essential in forming this silhouette.” These, he says, are “the strongest features of SSSTEIN,” through which they create an “ideal, tranquil, and beautiful mood” and “express natural elegance and beauty.”
Serenity is a keyword: SSSTEIN garments exude a sense of calm refinement – there’s no loud branding or flashy ornamentation, only subtle details that reveal themselves up close. This philosophy isn’t just theoretical — it manifests in garments that are as considered as they are covetable.
Where SSSTEIN Sits in Japan’s Fashion Ecosystem
SSSTEIN’s quiet climb invites comparison to peers like Auralee, Graphpaper, and even international names such as The Row. But each plays a distinct game. Auralee builds its reputation through fabric innovation and pristine minimalism. Graphpaper takes a more industrial-urban route, often leaning into utilitarian shapes with a modern twist. And The Row, with which SSSTEIN is often aligned, embodies New York’s serene couture.
What makes SSSTEIN stand apart is how these influences converge in Asakawa’s vision. There’s the precision tailoring of classic menswear, the reverence for fabric seen in Auralee, the subtle edge of Graphpaper — but all filtered through a lens of tranquility. If Auralee is the craftsman, Graphpaper the pragmatist, and The Row the aesthete, SSSTEIN is the philosopher: garments designed not only for how they look or feel, but how they exist within the cadence of daily life.
Notable Collections and Signature Pieces
From its modest start with three pairs of trousers, SSSTEIN has grown into a full-fledged brand offering. SSSTEIN’s commitment to subtlety has earned it an “If You Know, You Know” status among fashion connoisseurs (much like Auralee has), and season after season, buyers and editors have come to anticipate certain signature items from Asakawa’s collections – pieces that encapsulate SSSTEIN’s ethos and often become cult favorites.
Coats and trench coats in particular are a recurring highlight — reinterpreted each season with architectural flair: cape-like shoulders, funnel necks, or modular components that respond to movement and styling.
Beyond coats, SSSTEIN has built a reputation for impeccably tailored trousers. These trousers often have a wide, relaxed leg and a slight taper or straight drape that gives them a contemporary edge. Paired with hidden drawstrings or adjustable tabs, they merge comfort with refinement – easy pants elevated to luxury status. In fact, the original trio of pants Asakawa launched in 2017 set the template: they were praised for their cut and quickly gained a following among Tokyo’s fashion insiders. Today, SSSTEIN pants remain a staple in each season’s lineup, from pleated wool slacks to cropped cargo trousers rendered in upscale fabrics.
Another recurring element is SSSTEIN’s use of layering and modular design. Many pieces are designed to be layered effortlessly – for example, shell jackets that attach to wool liners, or shirts meant to be worn over turtlenecks and under blazers, allowing the wearer to play with proportion. This comes from Asakawa’s concept of “effortless layering” where each garment has a purpose in a larger ensemble. A good example was an ensemble from an autumn collection featuring a roomy overcoat layered atop a soft-shouldered blazer, over a long tunic shirt and wide pants – each layer simple on its own, but together creating depth. It’s fashion that is quietly intelligent: it considers the real-life needs of dressing (changing weather, indoor/outdoor, day-to-night versatility) without sacrificing style. “I wanted to make clothes you can casually wear on your doorstep, but that somehow feel very elegant,” Asakawa said of one collection, coining the idea of “doorstep elegance.” That phrase perfectly captures SSSTEIN’s sweet spot: garments as comfortable as your everyday go-tos, yet imbued with a refined elegance that elevates the mundane.
While SSSTEIN doesn’t chase overt trends, Asakawa isn’t afraid to experiment within his subdued palette. Recent collections have seen touches of the avant-garde – for instance, a “pipe-belt” accessory (an unusually structured belt that resembled a curved pipe) adding a quirky accent to an outfit, or deliberately distressed denim and workwear elements juxtaposed against crisp shirting. These touches inject a bit of edge and prevent the minimalism from ever feeling sterile.
Global Strategy and Retail Presence: From Tokyo to the World
Even before winning the Fashion Prize of Tokyo, SSSTEIN was steadily building an international presence through a curated network of stockists. Like Auralee, it has avoided flashy global rollouts in favor of thoughtful placements in boutiques that align with its ethos. In Japan, it’s stocked at around 50 stores, including major names like Isetan Men’s and International Gallery BEAMS — as well as personal favorites like 1LDK and Dimple, where the brand’s quiet sensibility feels right at home. Internationally, it's available at over 20 boutiques across cities like Seoul, Stockholm, and Paris — a subtle but strategic footprint that mirrors the brand’s low-key appeal.
This retail strategy has been instrumental in building SSSTEIN’s international reputation. Many fashion-forward shoppers encountered the label through these boutiques long before any official overseas marketing. The result: a quiet yet loyal global following, built organically through word-of-mouth and the curatorial credibility of trusted stockists. With no need for flashy campaigns, Asakawa let the garments do the talking — a strategy that aligns perfectly with a brand whose power lies in discretion, not spectacle.
Of course, the Fashion Prize of Tokyo 2025 has turbocharged SSSTEIN’s global strategy. The prize explicitly exists to help Japanese designers increase their international visibility and provides financial and logistical support for shows in Paris. Asakawa’s win (he is the 7th designer to receive this honor) came with the opportunity to present at Paris Fashion Week for two consecutive seasons, as well as an event during Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo.
The Paris debut in early 2025, though modest and off-schedule, marked a turning point. It offered global press and buyers a firsthand look at what Tokyo insiders already knew. The show featured SSSTEIN’s signatures — coats, trousers, layered tailoring — and broadcast Asakawa’s vision to an international audience. Another show is planned for June 2025.
A Distinct Trajectory with Global Promise
Looking ahead, Asakawa’s strategy is one of slow, sustainable growth. Rather than chasing rapid expansion, he emphasizes maintaining a balance between supply and demand — not only to avoid overproduction, but to ensure the brand’s scale remains aligned with its niche, quality-driven audience. In practice, that means SSSTEIN isn’t likely to flood the market or pivot toward short-term trends. Instead, the brand will continue to nurture its cultivated clientele, gradually expand its network of international stockists, and use platforms like Paris Fashion Week to build reputation, not volume. It’s a measured approach — deliberate, restrained, and fully in sync with SSSTEIN’s core philosophy.
SSSTEIN’s ascent proves that vision and patience can carve out a meaningful place on the global stage. From Asakawa’s early days unpicking vintage jackets in the backroom of a secondhand store to winning one of Japan’s top fashion prizes and showing in Paris, his path has been defined by steady, authentic growth. While the brand shares certain thematic DNA with Auralee and other Japanese contemporaries — a reverence for quality, minimalist design, and institutional backing — SSSTEIN’s trajectory feels distinctly personal. Asakawa’s work is less about fabric experimentation or avant-garde concepts and more about the emotional cadence of clothing: a quiet confidence, a feeling of composure, the subtle dignity of being well-dressed without demanding attention.
In a landscape obsessed with virality and spectacle, SSSTEIN is a reminder that luxury is best when it's felt, not flashed. A brand to watch — not because it shouts, but because it doesn't need to.