Two years into running his own brand feels both long and impossibly short for Hidehiro Nishijima. Prequel, along with its companion fabric label Foley, represents a departure from his previous decade-plus career in denim sales—a leap he never quite planned to make.
“I never intended to start my own brand, ” he admits, reflecting on the circuitous path that led him here. There was no grand design background, no master plan. Just a century-old fabric sample book that sparked something.
The reality of independence has been unforgiving. Finances are tight. Timing is difficult. Every decision, from fabric selection to production schedules, rests entirely on his shoulders.
“It’s stressful, ” he says plainly, without drama. The Japanese fashion industry doesn’t offer much cushion for emerging brands—stores can be finicky, particular, sometimes dismissive. But interestingly, he’s found more receptive audiences overseas, particularly in Europe, where customers seem to appreciate his garments at face value. They don’t care about hype or who’s wearing what. They see the craft, the quality, the story woven into the fabric itself.
The brand names—Prequel and Foley—are borrowed from his interests in cinema and music, though he’s quick to clarify he’s no aficionado. He doesn’t obsess over director names or catalog entire discographies. Yet those worlds inspire him nonetheless, informing how he thinks about his garments as narrative devices, as soundscapes made tangible through cloth. His collection draws heavily from vintage European pieces he collected years ago, during what he calls the golden age of Japanese vintage buying, when prices were reasonable and finds were plentiful.
Now, ironically, he finds himself holding back. He has more design ideas than he can produce, more garments he wants to make than the market will bear. There’s no pressure to churn out new designs seasonally—his work exists outside that relentless cycle. Instead, the challenge is restraint, patience, and the quiet anxiety of wondering if this will all work out. But he keeps moving forward, one fabric sample at a time.