Designers often rely on complex, artistically nuanced concepts for clothing lines -- like "resort wear", and "fleece" -- but what if all it took was a quick, simple idea, like Japanese naval voyages under the instruction of US Lieutenant John Mercer Brooke during the winter of 1860, and Buddy Lee jeans? Going with that one, Evisu's Spring Collection.

Evisu's nascent Spring line's based on nautical gear worn on the first US voyage by a Japanese sailing ship (borne out in stitched patch pockets, henley-ish sailor collars, wide-legged cuffed trousers, etc) and jeans paying a "deeply researched homage" to Lee denim from the 1910s, when Franz Ferdinand was an archduke, not Scottish indie mavens on a poster above your futon. Highlights: the hand-stitched, sailor-collared knit navy longsleeve, a six-button cardigan woven from cotton and bamboo, and the high-buttoning reefer jacket -- a short, double-breasted coat worn by seamen in cold weather, as opposed to the suspicious overcoat you wore during your return flight from Jamaica. Denim-wise, they've got new styles like the No13Left, a left-hand-milled twill commemorating the "famous" Lee design and made to wear down "softer" than normal, right-hand twill; and the No1Special, w/ "unsanforized" Japanese selvage cloth, meaning it'll shrink two inches in the waist post-wash -- an excuse you've already cried wolf on with the rest of your ever-tightening, sanforized wardrobe.

Slightly crazier denim includes the No3 woven from unbleached deep-blue-black "mother cotton", and the No4, which eschews standard ringspun yarn for an open-yarn denim causing "an interesting, spotty fading pattern, after a few months", the artistically nuanced result of a very simple inspiration: dirty pants.

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Get at the entire line at Evisu.com