L Catterton, the LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE)-backed private equity firm, has acquired a majority stake in the Japanese brand KAPITAL.
The firm's website confirms a 2024 investment year although the exact amount of the majority stake was not disclosed. The strategic partnership between L Catterton and KAPITAL was announced ahead of the brand's 40th anniversary in 2025 and under a year since the death of founder Toshikiyo Hirata in April 2024.
KAPITAL was formally founded in 1985 in Kojima, the district in Japan's Okayama prefecture known as the birthplace of Japanese denim. Hirata-san first founded the denim label in 1948 while living in the United States as a karate teacher, heavily inspired by the American denim aesthetic. He was one of the early Japanese collectors who traveled to America at the time in search of “vintage gold” and went on to study denim-making techniques in Kojima in the '80s.
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