Designer Jeans: The Denim Rollercoaster

The Paper Denim and Cloth brand was all the rage a few years ago. In the time slot between 2000 - 2003, the jean company had made deep inroads into the territory of high denim fashion under the creative direction of Scott Morrison. The company offered a special Japanese denim, hand painted stylings as well as specialized rivets. The Jeans were a smash success, even at over $200 a pair. After Morrison left the company in 2004, things changed. CEO Dick Gilbert's son Chris took over the creative helm , and moved manufacturing operations from Los Angeles to Mexico and the Dominican Republic in order to cut costs. Paper Denim and Cloth's customers, many of whom revered the brand, were critical of the change in management. Some complained that the workmanship had declined since the operations had moved out of the U.S. Sales declined, and more significantly, brand image suffered. In the span of six years, prices for the jean dropped from a peak of $240 to less than $40 at some discount retail outlets.

Blue Jeans are a fickle business, with new stars falling as quickly as they rise. Perhaps nothing illustrates this more than the example of Jordache Jeans. Jordache was founded in 1969 in the form of a discount jeans outlet managed by three brothers, Joe, Ralph, and Avi Naccache. Their business did well, though at this time, they were only carrying jeans made by other manufacturers, such as Gloria Vanderbilt and Calvin Klein. During the blackout of 1977, their store was looted and set ablaze. But the brothers had wisely insured their business. In 1978, they took a 120,000 insurance payment and poured their newfound capital into the jean manufacturing business.

It was a case of perfect timing. The public had tired of the traditional Levi Strauss brand of jeans. The "designer" jean pioneered by Calvin Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, and now Jordache would fit the body more snuggly. The Naccache brothers poured all of their money into a risky - and risqué - ad campaign. The TV networks initially rejected the sexy ads, but local NY TV stations aired them, and Jordache became a success. Jordache now had enough cash to fuel a second ad blitz. This one - slightly more tame than the first - was aired nationally. Jordache quickly became a sensation and in the early eighties it was perhaps the best known of the designer jeans. The Jordache began to license their name out to other clothing companies, which generated up to 300 million a year for the business. But over the course the eighties, the Jordache name became over exposed. Its popularity declined dramatically, as Jordache became associated with cheaper clothing, even to the point of being perceived as "tacky" by the same fashion elite that once made it popular.

In the nineties, the "designer jean" had largely lost its fashion status. Levi Strauss had reclaimed its standing as the classic blue jean. Perhaps in response to the tight jeans of the 80's, the fits became loose again, in some cases extremely so. This trend tended to favor male tastes, with few women taking interest in a loose fitting aesthetic. As the year 2000 rolled in, Jerome Dahan and Michael Glasser saw a potential in the market once again for a "designer" jean. They brought in famous designer Marc Jacobs for financial backing and created Seven For All Mankind, a new blue jean which would have more of a body hugging fit (though not as tight as the original Jordache) and would also feature a "distressed denim" process where the denim fabric would thinned and slightly torn in places to have a softer feel. The jeans were a success, and continue to maintain solid market share, competing with similar "new designer" styles from spin offs such as Citizens of Humanity, True Religion, and Joe Jeans. Seven For All Mankind also established Los Angeles not only as the showbiz capital, but also the designer jean capital of the country.

Seven For All Mankind, True Religion and Joe Jeans continue to enjoy good sales, even into the down retail market of 2009. But if the past is any indication, time will sorely test the ability of these jean makers to maintain their fashionable status. Staying fashionable is a dark art. Time will tell which of these jean manufacturers can keep up the most magic.