L.l.bean's japan edition is back and selling out fast

There is a particular kind of fashion obsession that only makes sense when you trace it back to its origin. In 1992, L.L.Bean opened its second-ever store not in Boston, not in New York, but in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo. The reason was blunt and commercial: Japanese tourists were flying thousands of miles specifically to shop the Freeport flagship, skipping every other American city on the map. The mail orders backed it up. So Bean went to them.

Three decades of quiet influence coming back stateside

That Tokyo outpost grew into 18 stores across Japan, each carrying a version of the Bean catalog that has since developed its own distinct personality. Boxier silhouettes. Oversized fits. A color palette that the American lineup rarely touches. For a certain strain of menswear obsessive, it became the holy grail of Americana filtered through a Japanese sensibility — the kind of thing that circulates in niche forums and gets quietly hoarded by people who know what they are looking at.

Last April, Bean finally acknowledged what those people already knew. The brand brought a small selection of the Japanese assortment to pop-ups in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Nick Wilkoff, the company's chief marketing officer, described it plainly: