The Early Years of Japanese Denim Production

A Portland, Maine, fishing boat professional, Aaron Mcneel maintains a passion for collecting and making colognes. Also a denim enthusiast, Aaron Mcneel seeks out Japanese denim that sets the standard when it comes to quality and style.

The Japanese enthusiasm for blue jeans dates back to the years after World War II, when US soldiers stationed in the country as part of the Occupation traded and sold old pairs of jeans to Japanese youth enamored of rock’n’roll, jazz, and other rebellious pop culture. The demand for these pants led to the import of Lee and Levi’s brands, but these were extremely expensive.

Fortunately, Japan already had a robust textile dyeing and weaving tradition, with Kojima one of the traditional textile centers. The Kojima-based company Maruo Clothing started to produce its own brand of jeans, but it encountered a major hurdle: Japanese equipment and traditions required fully penetrating cotton fiber with dye. By contrast, US-made jeans were only partially dyed, which allowed for fading to occur over time.

Hiroshima’s Kaihara mill produced the first fully Japanese-produced pair of denim jeans in 1967. Drawing on kimono-dyeing traditions, the company spearheaded a nationwide jeans boom, with sales rising from 7 million pairs in 1969 to 45 million pairs four years later and familiar brands such as Bison, Edwin, and Big Stone emerging.

Three Lesser-Known Facts about Twin Peaks

Aaron Mcneel works in general maintenance for fishing vessels based in Portland, Maine. In his free time, Aaron Mcneel watches a variety of television shows, including Twin Peaks.

The original Twin Peaks television series was broadcast more than 25 years ago. Despite all the time that has passed, many facts about the show are still unknown by many fans. For example:

- Actors were given their lines only. Actors on the show have revealed that they were given their individual lines only instead of complete scripts. This means they were completely unaware of what their co-stars were going to say and of the things that happened in scenes they were not in.

- Network executives thought the show was too rural. In the original opening credits, the population of Twin Peaks was 5,120. However, ABC executives believed that viewers weren’t drawn to shows that took place in rural areas, so they added an extra digit onto the end of the population, increasing it to 51,200.

- The character of Laura Palmer was just a still photograph and a dead body. David Lynch wanted to hire an actress from Seattle to pose for the still photo and play the body of Laura Palmer. He cast Sheryl Lee in the role. Later, he found that Lee was actually a good actress, so he created the role of Maddy Ferguson, Laura’s cousin, so Lee could become a regular cast member.

The Evolution of the Polo Fragrance Brand

Previously enrolled at Southern Maine Community College, Aaron Mcneel is a Portland resident who manages maintenance of a local fishing vessel. Outside of work, Aaron Mcneel has a strong interest in Japanese denim and is also an active collector and seller of colognes ranging from the vintage to the contemporary.

One of the powerhouses of contemporary men’s cologne is Ralph Lauren, a fashion house which popularized polo shirts as an aesthetic before launching the iconic Polo fragrance in 1978. This legendary cologne features leather, pine wood, and tobacco notes and combines classic masculinity with an appealing freshness.

Introduced in 1994, Polo Sport was more than simply a lighter version of its namesake and tempered the underlying woodiness with a crisp green aroma that seemed to embody athletic pursuits. In 2012, this was updated with the release of Polo Blue Sport, a formulation that lightens the woody base further and includes notes such as mint and apple.

In 2013, Polo expanded its line with Polo Red, which forewent the base woodiness altogether and brought together fiery scents such as red grapefruit and spicy red saffron. With Polo Blue and Black recently added to the mix, Ralph Lauren now offers a wide range of colognes for various occasions.