Elephant Brand
October 5, 2010 by Owen Parrott 
01
Images
—01. Kazuhiro Hirata's collection of bandanas is documented in Elephant Brand.
Words
Kazuhiro Hirata spent ten years bringing together an assortment of bandanas he wanted to wear. While in the beginning the Kapital frontman wasn't necessarily collecting them per se, a decade later and he had an impressive collection. After he'd amassed hundreds of them, mostly fast color ones, he catalogued them into this book Elephant Brand, which I finally managed to track down recently. The book gives a brief history of the cloth from all the way back in the 1600s and the Hindi origin of the word, through the American Gold Rush era up until it's prominence in Work and Western brands of the '40s and '50s. It's pretty much all in Japanese, with the exception of the amazing names Hirata has given each of his bandanas. Despite that though, the book is a fantastic visual reference of some amazing patterns and designs. It's an excellent addition for any coffee table.
