417 EDIFICE Reissues Its Chenille Crewneck With a Wider Color Range for Fall

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The mouliné knit pullover returns to 417 EDIFICE’s lineup in six colorways this October, priced at ¥8,800.

Six colorways of the same crewneck are heading back to 417 EDIFICE stores and BAYCREW’S STORE in mid-October, at the same ¥8,800 price the style has carried through its past run. The Mol Knit Color Rib Pullover, named for the mouliné yarn used to knit it (written as “mol” in the brand’s own Japanese-language copy), is built as a double-face fabric: a soft, textured chenille-like face, with a contrast color showing through at the neckline, shoulder seams, and the ribbed linking points. The colors on offer this time are black, gray, white, khaki, a deep bordeaux, and a bright yellow, a range wide enough that the same silhouette can read as a basic layering piece in one shade and a standalone color statement in another.

stir

Mouliné yarns are typically spun by twisting two or more differently colored or textured threads together, which is what gives a finished fabric its slightly uneven, nubby surface rather than a flat, even knit. It’s a texture more often associated with statement cardigans and bulkier knitwear than with a basic crewneck, and that contrast is part of what 417 EDIFICE is leaning on here: a shape simple enough to wear under a jacket, in a yarn distinctive enough that it doesn’t need one.

The cut itself is unremarkable by design. It’s a standard crewneck, cut with enough room through the body that 417 EDIFICE’s own retail copy describes it as wearable without the fuss knitwear can sometimes imply, closer in spirit to a sweatshirt than a dressed-up sweater. What separates it from a plain crewneck is where the color shows up. The reverse side of the double-face knit and the ribbed sections at the collar carry a different shade from the body, so a black version might flash gray at the neckline, or a white one might show black in the rib. It’s a controlled hit of contrast rather than a full colorblock, which keeps the piece closer to basic than statement even in its louder colorways. The retailer’s own styling notes suggest it works equally well layered over a lightweight long-sleeve tee or worn on its own.

Sizing runs M, L, and XL. On the most recent listing to carry this exact design, shoulder width measured 48 to 52.5 centimeters across the size run, body width 55 to 60 centimeters, body length 64.5 to 66.5 centimeters, and sleeve length held steady at 60 centimeters regardless of size, with the finished garment weighing between 532 and 600 grams depending on size. That same listing put the fabric at 89 percent polyester, 10 percent nylon, and 1 percent polyurethane, manufactured in China and recommended for gentle machine washing given the yarn’s texture. Either the October restock carries identical numbers wasn’t confirmable ahead of release, since a dedicated product page for the new run hadn’t gone live at the time of writing, but the cut has held steady enough across prior listings of the same design that a meaningful shift seems unlikely.

style

Nothing about this release reads like a debut. The product name, the price, and the six-color range all match a listing that has circulated on BAYCREW’S STORE and other Japanese retail platforms before this announcement, and the retailer’s own listing title carries the word “追加,” meaning “additional” or “restock,” a label BAYCREW’S applies to items returning to stock rather than launching cold. One earlier listing for the same design, since marked down and sold through in every size, gives a sense of how far back the style goes. Read together, the pattern points to a pullover that has been a recurring piece in 417 EDIFICE’s knitwear range rather than a single-season idea, brought back with fresh stock as the weather turns. No original release date for the design itself could be pinned down, which tracks for a brand that treats a handful of its own knitwear shapes as standing items rather than dated, one-off drops.

417 EDIFICE isn’t limited to its Shibuya flagship, either. The brand has run joint storefronts with sibling label SLOBE IENA in shopping centers outside Tokyo before, including one that opened inside Lalaport Expocity in Suita, Osaka, in November 2015, sharing a floor with a Journal Standard relume store in the same complex. That kind of shared footprint, several BAYCREW’S labels splitting one retail space outside the home market, is a fairly typical way the group expands beyond central Tokyo.

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417 EDIFICE didn’t start as a separate brand. In an interview with HOUYHNHNM, BAYCREW’S menswear press Yamaguchi described the line’s origin as a category inside EDIFICE stores built around entry-priced items, one that customers responded to strongly enough that the company opened it as its own standalone shop in 2009. More than fifteen years later, that starting point still shows in how the brand describes itself: a French trad foundation, carried over from EDIFICE’s own design language, filtered through a younger customer and a lower price point, with marine, military, work, and sport references feeding a lineup built for daily wear rather than occasion dressing.

The 417 EDIFICE flagship sits in Shibuya’s Jinnan neighborhood, a short walk from EDIFICE‘s own concentration of Tokyo stores, and the brand runs its own webstore and Instagram account separately from its parent. In 2020, on the strength of a decade in business, 417 EDIFICE spun out a label of its own, Famous Department Store, built around a simple, gender-and-age-neutral brief: clothing meant to sit comfortably in someone’s daily life rather than announce itself. The label’s designers were kept anonymous at launch, though BAYCREW’S has said the roster includes creators known elsewhere in Japanese fashion for bag and hat design, and its debut campaign put DJ and stylist HARU in front of the camera as the face of the line.

flow

Splitting a simple sub-line off an existing shop isn’t a habit unique to 417 EDIFICE within BAYCREW’S. EDIFICE did something similar in March 2016, opening a joint concept store with sister brand IENA called IENA EDIFICE LA BOUCLE, built around the idea of folding a little of the unusual into an everyday wardrobe. That store later produced its own label, belesto, which takes a traditional European silhouette as a base and layers in seasonal, of-the-moment details, a brief not far removed from what 417 EDIFICE gives its own designers. The pattern repeats often enough across the group that it reads less like a one-off idea and more like company culture: a shop earns enough of a following, and BAYCREW’S lets it grow a label, or a store, of its own.

 

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417 EDIFICE has done this within its own house, too, beyond Famous Department Store. In September 2021 it launched fosterr, a small label overseen by designer Toshiya Kanno of Yesterday’s Tomorrow, debuting with an open-collar shirt, a sweat hoodie and pant set, and a pair of ribbed pants, priced between ¥8,800 and ¥9,900 and sold across 417 EDIFICE’s own stores and BAYCREW’S STORE.

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The pullover currently sits alongside a wider mix of 417 EDIFICE exclusives on BAYCREW’S STORE, including a bleach-washed henley made with Champion, an adidas capsule tied to Liverpool FC, and a graphic tee built around the manga GANTZ, the kind of range that swings between in-house basics and outside collaborations within a single storefront rather than committing to one lane.

EDIFICE, the brand 417 takes its name and design language from, is run by Ledome Co. under the BAYCREW’Sumbrella and is pitched at an older, style-literate male customer across daily wear and dresswear alike. It has had an active year on its own terms: EDIFICE opened a new store in Ebisu’s Atre shopping complex this past May, and its most recent fall/winter campaign put SixTONES member Jesse in front of the camera, shot by photographer Ryosuke Kosuge. Whether any of that momentum carries over into 417 EDIFICE’s own release calendar is hard to say from outside the company, but the two brands have shared a retail footprint for more than a decade, down to running joint storefronts in some shopping center locations.

BAYCREW’S itself has been in business since July 1977 and, as of its most recently reported fiscal year, ran 409 stores nationwide across fashion, food, furniture, and fitness, with consolidated revenue of roughly ¥138.9 billion and a staff of about 5,457 people. Its portfolio includes Journal Standard, IENA, Deuxieme Classe, and Spick and Span alongside EDIFICE and 417 EDIFICE, and in February 2024 the group opened a new multi-brand retail format, Select by BAYCREW’S, inside Tokyo’s Toranomon Hills Station Tower. The Mol Knit Color Rib Pullover is a small, inexpensive piece of that much larger portfolio, the kind of item that rarely gets a headline of its own. This October marks its latest return to shelves, in six colors, at a price that hasn’t moved.