Exceptional warmth and waterproof performance paired with minimal design - Down needs no introduction at this point. The collaboration between DESCENTE ALLTERRAIN and Graphpaper now enters its sixth year, and this season's model stands out as the most uniquely collaborative result of all the attempts and iterations so far. Minami and Koki Ota from DESCENTE JAPAN look back on the process that led to its completion.
"Wait - you mean I'm around LeBron size?" (Minami)
―Today we hoped to hear from Minami about the collaboration between Graphpaper and DESCENTE ALLTERRAIN, and I see the DESCENTE team has joined us as well.
Takayuki Minami (Minami below): Yeah. When it comes to detailed specs and construction, I'm useless. They know everything far better than I do.
DESCENTE JAPAN Koki Ota (Ota below): (Laughs) I'm Ota from MD. Nice to meet you.
Minami: In terms of making and quality, DESCENTE handles everything. I just say "I want this," "I want that."
―I feel like this collaboration has gradually become one of those "it's tradition now" things. When did it actually begin?
Minami: When was it... 2019? Yeah, 2019. And from that year onward, every autumn/winter without fail.
―That definitely counts as tradition.
Minami: It all started when I tried on a Mizusawa Down at DESCENTE's exhibition. My reaction was, "It's too slim, I can't wear this!" They even brought out the largest overseas size, but it was still too small. So I thought, I can't order this… Everyone probably wanted to say, "You're not the only person who's going to wear it!" but I ignored that and said, "Can't you make a bigger one?"
―I'm starting to feel guilty hearing this.
Ota: (Laughs)
Minami: When they said they could do it, I was like, "Yes!" The first was Mountaineer, right?
Ota: Yes.
Minami: They scaled up the mainline "Mountaineer" model - not just sizing it up, they refined it in detail. But if someone asked "What's the collaboration concept?" the answer would technically be just "We made it bigger."
―That would make for a shockingly short press release.
Minami: Exactly. But I figured I couldn't be the only one who felt that way. Mizusawa was designed to fit close to the body with purpose, and I always liked the look - I just couldn't get into it physically. My body's built like a down jacket. This is where you laugh, by the way.
Ota: (Laughs) Even internally people said, "Are we sure it's okay to make it this big!?" We based it off a size we'd never sold in Japan - around 4XL - and then further adjusted it. Once, for a collaboration in the US, we made a special size for LeBron James. The sizing this time is roughly in the same range.
Minami: Wait - you mean I'm around LeBron size?
―(Laughs) Well, he's 206cm.
Minami: I think we'd get along. Though he's stacked with muscle.
Ota: He definitely is. So we basically started from around 5XL and lengthened the body from there.
―That's quite a story. But if it was just about making a big down jacket, couldn't Graphpaper have produced it themselves?
Minami: Maybe. But the construction — you can't do this without the Mizusawa factory, right? The down pack isn't sewn; it's heat-bonded. We couldn't recreate that feel ourselves.
- The down pack construction unique to Mizusawa Down
―How exactly is that structure made?
Ota: It's a little hard to explain briefly, but normally down jackets have internal down packets, and stitches create the quilting. Mizusawa Down bonds tape and lining together so no stitching shows on the outside. It prevents feathers from escaping too.
Minami: Right.
Ota: To achieve that, you need machines to inject down, and seam-sealing machines. Mizusawa happened to produce both downwear and waterproof ski shells, so combining that technology led to the idea. Very few factories in Japan have both capabilities.
Minami: I see. Hard to believe it's been years and I'm only now going "ohh, really?" Sorry about that.
Ota: (Laughs)
Minami: I actually never wore down much before, but after working with DESCENTE, I've been in down basically every winter.
―Why didn't you wear down jackets before, and why do you wear Mizusawa now?
Minami: Hmm… Mizusawa is minimal. I love that visually. Most down jackets are either too plain or too casual. Mizusawa feels different - it's just easy to wear. I don't know why, though.
Ota: The 4-way stretch fabric helps, and areas that don't need down aren't padded - lots of details like that.
Minami: That makes sense. Your shoulders don't get tired — it doesn't "sit on" you. You'll feel it the moment you try it. I own other down jackets, but I always end up wearing this one.
"An approach we could never reach on our own. That's what makes it interesting." ( Ota)
―When you first decided to make a down jacket larger than the mainline version, what was the hardest part?
Minami: I remember being told something like, "The structure is patterned to fit the body, so scaling it up might be a design no-go." Meaning we'd basically have to redo everything. Now we can get a great first sample every year, but at the beginning we kept changing lengths and proportions, over and over. It was a lot of trial and error.
―And despite that, DESCENTE still went ahead with it - does that mean you saw potential as well?
Ota: Yes. Our mainline products are generally made to fit close to the body for maximum warmth - that's the natural direction for a sports brand. But the collaboration with Graphpaper is specifically for city wear, which is an approach we couldn't reach alone. That's what made it interesting, and why we wanted to experiment.
Minami: The premise was that I had to be able to wear it, but the second condition was that it still had to look good on slimmer people. Then the first sample came back, we put it on a thinner guy and thought, "This looks amazing!" That's when we knew it would work. And riding that high, we even made a shell version.
―That was this past spring/summer, right?
Minami: Yeah. We were nervous at first, but it sold out instantly.
Ota: It was fast. We took the design of the down Mountaineer and applied it to a shell — the Creas, which you ordered last time. As ALLTERRAIN, having our signature design featured in both SS and FW was a huge moment.
―Now that we've traced the background, we'd love to hear about this year's model.
Minami: The key point this time is the stand collar - no hood. We removed the hood from the previous model. When I visited DESCENTE's showroom, there was a stand-collar down jacket that caught my eye.
Ota: And we talked about how good that silhouette looked.
Minami: Right. I often find hoods annoying - especially when I wear a shoulder bag across the body. It always catches. Another feature is the shoulder slope.
―You mean the slope is even steeper this time?
Minami: More that the construction is different. The last model had set-in sleeves, but this time it's a split raglan like a coat. The base is the Anchor model without the hood, but the shoulder construction is from the Mountaineer.
- The shoulder construction: split raglan―So it's a hybrid - a new shape.
Minami: Exactly. A model that didn't exist before. We kept updating bit by bit over five years until it became something special. Because I've worn every version, I'd say things like "The shoulders were better that season" - lots of unreasonable requests - and DESCENTE finally understands my annoying preferences.
Ota: Combining the Anchor and Mountaineer patterns and adjusting mobility in the shoulders took the pattern makers quite a bit of effort.
Minami: Thank you. You know, feel free to say "it was horrible".
Ota: Not at all (laughs). But it was tricky to adjust while keeping that quiet minimal presence Mizusawa Down has from the front view.
Minami: Before, we always started from an existing model and altered silhouette or details. But this time it feels like we've made something completely separate from the mainline collection. In that sense, this feels the most like a true collaboration we've done. The way it holds a three-dimensional form even just hanging on a rack - the pattern cutting is incredible.
Release Date
Saturday, November 23, 2024, 12:00 -
Available in-store & online simultaneously
Price: ¥125,000 + tax
Color: BLACK
Size: O/S
Text: Rui Konno
