There is an old joke in the biz that proves to be more relevant than ever… What’s the difference between a $100 pair of jeans and a $200 pair of jeans? $100… At the end of the day what makes you different is your branding. As a young kid in high school, I wasn’t necessarily fashionable but I was fashion aware. At the time we were in the heat of a denim revolution. It was my first experience with premium denim…OOH LA LA SASSON, Jordache, Calvin Klein and so on. This is the early 1980′s and $69.00 was a lot of money to be spending on jeans. Say what you will about these brands now, but back then they were Premium Denim.
Fast forward to the early nineties… I was wet behind the ears, having just started covering the fashion industry. I’m sitting in the hot new restaurant in NYC with my Editor-in-Chief waiting for our dinner meeting. In walk two, very European looking, gentlemen with thick Italian accents. We go through the cordial introductions and small talk. During dinner and friendly debate about the fashion industry, they proceed to tell us about how they are changing their approach to the US market and taking over all operations from their distributor. That they make the best jeans, from the best Italian fabrics in the best Italian factories and that they will sell their jeans here in for $125.00. My editor and I look at each other thinking that these cocky Italians are out of their minds. But Renzo Ruso and Maurizio Marchiori from Diesel Jeans, with their irreverent marketing campaigns and European fits and beautiful washes, created the next wave of premium denim, the European Invasion. Everyone in the business thought they were crazy and would run back to Europe with their tail between their legs, but we all know that didn’t happen. Diesel changed the denim game and brought it to a new level.
And here we are today. We are in the downturn of the last premium denim cycle having just gone through incredible growth, hundred million dollar evaluations, sales, private equity investments. The bloom is off the rose and everyone knows it. It’s no secret that 2014 has been challenging for the denim industry, especially in the women’s market. Denim has become a commodity driven business, there are just too many companies selling too many stores.
The word premium used to be associated with a certain quality of denim, manufactured in a certain way, at a particular price point. Today every other company uses it to describe their jeans, whether they are selling at $80.00 or $200.00; whether they are made in Bangladesh or Italy. To me premium is about craftsmanship, it’s about using the best of the best in materials and manufacturing and packaging it in a way that makes it special.
When you can buy the same brand in a department store, specialty store, flash-sale site, e-commerce site, off price store, outlet store, it ceases to be special. Unfortunately denim is no longer special; there is just too much supply and not enough demand. And there is no quick fix either. It will just need to run its course as it always does.
If you are a specialty store retailer, and if you haven’t done so already, you need to let the department store brands go, you need to go out and look for new exciting brands that have a unique point of view and product offering. If you are a brand, you need to develop strong partnerships with the specialty store market and spend two -three years developing these relationships and learning about your brand and your customer base.
There will be a reinvention of the denim market and it will most likely come with the next generation of the fashion aware. Those that look for a brand that their mom or dad isn’t wearing and that speak to their beliefs and lifestyle. Denim isn’t going anywhere, it’s been a part of our history and fashion culture since they were created and used as work-wear in the late 1800′s.
Gus Floris
Editor in Chief