Pictured: Auralee designer, Ryota Iwai

Taken on their own and from afar, there are few Auralee garments that immediately stand out. To the untrained eye, it’s Uniqlo with a ten-time markup. Many of Auralee’s pieces look like garments that we’re already familiar with—T-shirts, jeans, trousers, Harrington jackets—rendered in solid, often muted tones.

That’s not to say that they’re boring, though. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Auralee makes the kind of clothes that you have to see up close and feel in your hands to truly appreciate. Ones that get more interesting the more you inspect them and which turn out to be far from boring when you understand the garment.

When Iwai launched Auralee, he knew that he wanted to put an emphasis on textiles—sourcing nothing but the finest materials to create original, innovative fabrics and then making the most of them. Grab a fistful of cotton on an Auralee shirt and it probably won’t wrinkle. Run the back of your hand along a piece of silk and you’d think it's one of those heavy luxury label shirts from the ’90s, when you’re actually getting a lightweight shirt in-line with modern day performance sportswear.

There is an identifiable...well, “aura,” to Auralee. It’s simplicity that’s refined, elegant and luxurious. The kind of clothes that are not limited to cyclical trends. Auralee abides by menswear’s established codes but interprets the codes more liberally. [Jeans](https://www.grailed.com/drycleanonly/best-jeans-brand-for-men, a staple of workwear, feature a hard pleat down the front, a detail borrowed from Savile Row and Italian tailoring. Similarly, shortsleeved work shirts are crafted from buttery leather rather than rough canvas.

The industry, particularly in Japan, has already taken note of Auralee. In Tokyo, Iwai’s label was awarded the city’s second fashion prize, the reward for which was an entirely subsidized runway show in Paris in 2019—an immense opportunity for growth on a global level. On that note, a well-received collaboration with New Balance has also exposed Auralee to new customers and retailers. Case in point: the brand is set to be introduced by SSENSE, a decent barometer for global commercial viability, for Fall/Winter 2020.

On a commercial front, it’s a little bit ironic that despite the fact that Auralee is intentionally ignorant of the trends of the moment, the current trends are likely to benefit the brand as much as the additional exposure has. As maximalist streetwear, with its graphic T-shirts and sneakers, gives way, a brand like Auralee that trades in well-made, luxurious staples stands to benefit. It’s almost inevitable.

Why? Because, as they say, fashion is cyclical. Another tired, but true, cliché. Trends come and go, yes, but they also repeat themselves.

Around a decade ago, menswear found itself in a similar moment—with customers facing financial uncertainty and with a recent spike in the popularity of sneakers (at the time Jordan retros) and graphics-heavy fashion (Marcelo Burlon, Riccardo Tisci’s Givenchy). While sneakers and streetwear would return to the fore by the second half of the decade, in the years circa 2013, it was well-made high-end staples that ruled. The thinking was that if you bought better, you’d buy less in the long run; it’s a massive reason why raw denim became so popular. Brands like A.P.C. and Lemaire and Acne Studios (before it’s turn towards slightly more experimental silhouettes) reigned thanks to their high-quality, versatile and luxurious minimalism.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly the niche that Auralee fits into. There are elements of the three aforementioned brands to be found in Iwai’s Auralee—particularly Lemaire, though Auralee feels a little more accessible and Lemaire can be a touch experimental at times. Almost all of Auralee’s garments are familiar: trench coats and Harrington jackets and turtlenecks and T-shirts. Though, they’re made from textiles or in ways that you might not expect, with a shape that’s slightly tweaked compared to what you’d typically find. The color palettes are palatable but never boring.

Most importantly, though, the price point isn’t prohibitive, hitting the sweet spot between luxury and quality. The clothes are expensive, yes—the brand’s famous seamless T-shirts run about $130—but you know that the price is justified and that no corners have been cut. Most importantly when it comes to the price, though, is that you don’t get the feeling that it’s being paid for just one season’s worth of wear—the clothes will hold up both physically and stylistically.

When Ryota Iwai launched Auralee in 2015, it looked a lot like what Auralee looks like heading into 2021. Normally, that would be a bad thing. But Auralee is one of those rare brands where its almost stubborn consistency isn’t just a good thing—it’s the thing that defines the brand.