Old Fishing, New Clothes

DAIWA PIER39 looks back to 1980’s fishing to shape a contemporary wardrobe.

There is a particular kind of fishing jacket that almost explains itself before you notice the details. Pockets sit where the hands expect them. A loop appears because something needs somewhere to go. Storage accumulates until the garment becomes less an outfit than a system. DAIWA PIER39 has spent the last several years making that logic legible to people who may never step into a river.

For Autumn/Winter 2026, the brand has gone back to what it calls 1980s “old fishing.” The collection revisits classic silhouettes, materials and details from that period, then rebuilds them through contemporary fabrics and manufacturing. Its third delivery arrived September 26, with the Tech Angler Chore Coat offering perhaps the clearest expression of the idea.

The coat is cut from dense nylon twill finished with a wax coating intended to give the surface some of the depth and irregularity of an older fabric. Across the front sit patch pockets in different sizes and, more unusually, a rod holder. Inside, additional compartments are designed around tackle cases, lure boxes and a phone. Forward-set sleeves and action pleats increase movement through the arms; a mesh lining keeps the technical construction from becoming too literal.

Across the wider AW26 collection, DAIWA PIER39 also talks about pairing classic-looking materials with high-tech functions, including fabrics made with recycled fishing nets. The archive is not treated as something to reproduce faithfully; it becomes raw material for a different kind of technical wardrobe.

None of these details are especially strange within fishing. That is precisely the point. Where many fashion brands arrive at angling through image, the vest, the hat, the wader, the idea of the fisherman, DAIWA starts with the activity itself. It already understands why the pocket exists. PIER39 simply changes the environment around it. That makes the collection an interesting counterpoint to the broader fishing influence moving through fashion. The important detail is not that the clothes look like fishing clothes. It is that the functional decisions survive the translation. A rod holder can remain a rod holder even when the jacket is worn through Tokyo rather than beside a lake.

Utility becomes style without having to pretend it was decorative all along.

And perhaps that is why DAIWA PIER39 continues to feel convincing: the fishing reference never needs to be invented.

Shop the collection at DAIWA PIER39 here