Otaru, Japan

This M.J. Bale Collection garment is made in our northern Japan tailoring atelier, located in the town of Otaru in the Hokkaido Prefecture. Overseen by Miyuki master tailor and long-time M.J. Bale partner, Kaneko Kenichi, the atelier is also the workshop for our Made-to-Measure suiting program. It is located in a former bank and employs about 75 experienced local tailors. Built in the 1920s and designed in the Italian Futurist style, the building was the former Hokkaido HQ of Dai Ichi Bank. It’s a grand relic from the time Otaru was considered the “Wall Street of the north,” due to the concentration of bankers here charged with financing Japan’s rapid modernisation. Once filled with coins, bills, and booty, now the bank’s gaol-like steel vaults function as M.J. Bale’s Made-to-Measure appointment rooms. The phrase ‘looking the money’ has never felt so apt.