EDWIN was started in 1947 by Tsunemi Yonehachi was the first "vintage jeans" retailer in the world. The Japanese had become aware of the Americana style and wanted to buy used Levi's jeans. At first, they traded in used jeans, but eventually Tsunemi Yonehachi managed to get hold of deadstock (unsold) Levi's in what might have been obsolete sizes in the US, but which fitted perfectly in the Japanese market.
Eventually, demand became great, and EDWIN started their own production of jeans. They were at first pretty faithful copies of Levi's, but eventually they were adjusted to get better quality and then EDWIN passed Levi's in quality. When his son, Shuji Tsunemi, took over in 1961, they started making imitations of American jeans. In 1963, EDWIN made what is still the heaviest denim ever with its 16oz rainbow selvedge.
They already managed to make better jeans than the Americans in the 60s, and in the 80s they invented 'stone wash'.
When the rockabilly trend made a comeback in the early 2000s, it was Edwin's jeans that most closely resembled the original 50s jeans worn by James Dean in the movie "A Rebel Without a Cause".
When we first opened the Vintage Jeans store in 2018, it was next door to Angels' Speed Equipment, a legendary store associated with the rockabilly scene in Oslo. The first premises at Rathkes gate 7b also housed another legendary store - the record store Neseblod.
