A Conversation with W. David Marx

In the strange world of menswear and niche popular culture, W. David Marx has become a bit of an oracle, someone who can sift through the slop and get to the bottom of what, if anything, it all means. He moved to Japan more than 20 years ago, finding himself at the centre of a new wave of fascination around how two distinct worlds interact. 

“I think on one level, I found all the differences between my upbringing in Florida and life in Japan quite interesting,” says Marx, as we walk around the narrow streets and pleasingly cluttered bookshops of Tokyo’s Jinbocho district on a winter’s afternoon. “In a lot of cases I couldn't understand  what was driving the difference, and so that became almost like my first ever research project.” 

That desire for understanding the differences has led to several acclaimed books, the most widely-read being Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style, a deep dive into how Americana—denim, workwear, military gear and, eventually, streetwear—flourished and evolved in the country in the post WWII years. “I grew up wearing very traditional, what you might call preppy or Ivy clothes, along with a lot of band t-shirts,” he says. “When I first came to Japan I noticed how everyone dressed so well, and it felt embarrassing to be an American, dressing like an American in a place like this. I began to notice, with brands like A Bathing Ape, Supreme and then Thom Browne, that a very American style of clothing had taken root here, which were all things I was very familiar with from home.”

Having written blog posts and magazine stories about his unique view on Japanese and American style, Marx ended up writing a 110,000 word book on the subject at the behest of his agent, which would eventually end up as Ametora, a Japanese word for ‘American Traditional.’ Multiple publishers rejected it at first before it found a home. “I really felt like it was going to be this niche thing that 20 people read,” says Marx, “but it ended up arriving at a time when more people were becoming interested in men’s fashion, as well as Japan more broadly. Since then it’s had a very long shelf life. I wrote it because it was a good story, I didn't write it because I think there's going to be a big audience for it.”

For Marx, it’s been interesting to see how this initially hyper-specific book for guys who are really into Japanese denim and loopwheel sweatshirts has travelled over the years. The UK was its first big market, and he was recently stopped on a train by someone reading it in Taiwanese. Brands have even started to even refer to specific items as ‘Ametora style.’ 

“Now, rappers like ASAP Rocky will collaborate with a brand like Needles, which would have been pretty unthinkable 15 years ago. A lot of the crossover between Japanese and American style is obvious in ways it wasn’t in the past.”

By now we’ve taken seat in the basement of a traditional Japanese coffee house. We cram around a low table and order black coffees filtered using a flannel cloth. At the time of our visit, tourism in Japan has never been more popular, a polarising topic in a country with such a strong sense of identity and heritage.

“It would be very selfish of me to be against people visiting Japan,” says Marx, “the only real issue I see is that people want to visit special places, but a lot of these special places have about five seats. They’re not set up for going viral. There are places I used to be able to pop into that you need a reservation for now. But it’s such a big city, so my attitude is to just move to neighbourhoods that are still a bit of a secret.”

Since the success of Ametora, Marx has published a critically acclaimed book on the nebulous topic of how we perceive status, titled: Status And Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change, and is busy finalising his next on a cultural history of the 21st century. Part of his appeal as a writer is how he is able to take daunting topics, why we think, consume and desire certain things, and break them down for a wider audience without diluting the meaning. 

“I suppose I always start by asking my reader to stick with me and pay attention to certain themes,” he says, whether that’s Japanese fashion, or why culture feels slightly off or, in this case, the impact of figures like Kanye West, Paris Hilton and the far right. 

“It’s fun to be able to dig down a little deeper, and see where it takes me.”