“I would never wear a T-shirt,” said David Buchler, 42, while chatting about his clothing tastes on a Saturday in mid-March. He was speaking hyperbolically to emphasize his preference for dressier shirts. “It’s always a button-up,” he said. “I have loads.”
That day, he had styled a blue-and-white-striped button-up shirt with cobalt-blue Ralph Lauren knitwear, which helped to distinguished him in the crowd outside a coffee shop in the Shibuya neighborhood of Toyko. (So did his thick round eyeglasses.) While assembling his outfit, he had started with the sweater, he said, and “then everything else just kind of fell into place.”
Born in South Africa, he has spent the past 15 years or so living in Japan, where he runs an e-commerce business selling fabrics and other items — bow ties, bags and pants — some of which he designs. His own wardrobe is a mixture of utilitarian basics and clothing with more personality, he explained.
“I have a lot of very standard black pieces — black trousers, black jackets, black coats,” he said. “But I always like to have a little bit of color with that.”
Simbarashe Cha is a Times photographer and visual columnist documenting style and fashion around the world.
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