Denimandjeans | Global Trends, News and Reports | Worldwide

Author: Sandeep Agarwal

  • White Denim Jeans – Cool Summers or Hot Winters product?

    White denim jeans seem to have been taken up by almost all well known brands and most of them have postioned it as a premium product.The reason is that today’s fashion fore-minded consumer is practically indoors and in climate-controlled environments so much that there’s less of an urge for bulky clothing that can only be worn during wintry months. This increases the acceptance of white denim as not only a summer product . Apart from it , white denim is very versatile and can have a fresh summer appearance or a very rich autumn appearance.
    ““White denim is so versatile; it can have a fresh nautical look or a very rich appearance. It is one of those pants that can be taken from a casual day at the beach to a cocktail party effortlessly,” says Jerome Dahan, a designer and owner of Citizens of Humanity”

    As Fabricofourlives.com rightly mentions “The versatility of white denim can be easily noted as its stand out attribute. It can effortlessly be dressed up or down; making the transition from day-to-night looks a cinch. White denim jeans, in particular, can be worn almost everywhere, even in the office.With white denim, you get such a crisp, rich appearance that it tends to look dressier and more distinguished than regular denim often does”

    Chiff.com writes “White Denim Tops List of Summer’s Must-Haves”

    Here are some cool White Denim Jeans from different brands:
    PAPER DENIM SKINNY

    MEN’S TRUE RELIGION BILLY BIG T-BLEACHED

    POLO BY RALPH LAUREN

    OPTIC WHITE CHARLIE JEANS BY GUESS

    NEIMAN MARCUS 100& LORO PIANA

    DIESEL MATIC

    7 FOR ALL MANKIND WHITE JEANS

    SHARKAH CHAKRA BLEACH FREE WHITE JEANS

    J CREW WHITE DENIM

  • Imports of jeans into US continues to decline in 2008

    The fall in import figures that we saw in the year 2007 continues in the year 2008 – and more alarmingly.
    The fall is to the tune of about 10% and is quite alarming.

    IMPORTS OF MEN’S AND WOMEN’S JEANS INTO USA IN Ist QUARTER 2008

    Period Women’s/Girls Jeans(million
    pcs    )    		 Men’s/Boys Jeans(million pcs) Total
    2007 Ist Quarter 46.24 49.28 95.52
    2008 Ist Quarter 42.74 43.94 86.68
    Fall in % 7.56% 10.83% 9.25%

    Thus we see continous fall in imports of BOTH MEN’S and WOMEN’S jeans into USA. Is this a sign of Denim Overload setting in with consumers trying to experiment with products ? However, this does not seem to have effect on the labels coming up – we can see a number of new denim labels coming up every few days.However, this fact can be verified partially from the status of sales of fabric by Denim Mills. Most of the denim mills worldwide are not in particularly great position when it comes to order situation. Similarly , many garment exporters from India,Pakistan,Bangladesh etc have tried to add new product lines to cover the shortages in orders on Denims.

  • Men’s Jeans experience fall in imports into US – 6.82% in 2007

    As Compared to 2006 , the imports of Men’s Jeans into US has fallen 6.82% from 293 million pieces to about 273 million pieces in 2007.
    The fall was consistent through the various quarters of 2007(as I mentioned last year) . The table below shows the figures of imports from various countries
    IMPORTS OF MEN’S JEANS INTO USA (IN 2007) FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

    Country

    Country Million Pcs Percentage Share
    Mexico 97.71 35.66
    Bangladesh 24.04 8.77
    Pakistan 15.02 5.48
    Honduras 14.35 5.23
    China 13.32 4.86
    Egypt 12.79 4.66
    Cambodia 11.88 4.33
    Costa Rica 11.79 4.30
    Lesotho 9.90 3.61
    Hongkong 6.54 2.38
    Nicaragua 6.31 2.30
    Guatemala 5.47 1.99
    India 1.84 0.67
    Jordan 1.57 0.57

    Total Imports of Mens Jeans in 2007:: 273.93 million pcs
    Source:US Customs

    Some points are worth noting from the table:
    a)Mexico still retains its position as number 1 exporter despite falling share.But that is expected to fall.
    b)China is yet to make a significant mark in the US men’s jeans market.Though it will definitely.
    c)Bangladesh has continued to make progress and has aquired a sizeable 9% share of the market.
    However, its neighbour India still has an insignificant share of 0.67% and it shows that India is absolutely uncompetitive in Men’s Jeans.
    d)Small countries like Lesotho have made great use of Sub-saharan treaties to increase exports to US
    e)Egypt has gained a great share at the cost of Jordan due to benefits extended to it. Jordan has lost the share due to its rising costs.This is continue to grow and more and more of factories are expected to shift to Egypt.

    The fall in the jeans imports is perhaps consistent with the fall in growth rate of denim consumption..

    Related Posts: Imports of Jeans continues to decline in 2008.

                                  Rebound in US Men’s Jeans Imports in second qarter.

                                 Imports of Jeans in US –2007 and 2008

  • Search Denim jobs,brands,buyers,blog and forum posts etc

    What do you do when :

    a)You need to find about Denim brands or
    b)You need to find Denim buyers to sell your fabric and garments or
    c)You need to study about the Trends in Denim or
    d)You need a job related to Denim in(say) New York or Delhi or
    e)You have any other denim related queries..
    f)You need to buy a particular style of a jeans brand but do not know where to buy from.

    Well, for me, I used to go to Google and hope to find some answer. Or I would to visit some denim forums or blogs and try to search them individually. By the time I would find any answer, I would be totally exhausted and probably give up many times..

    As I earlier mentioned, it seems to be much easier to SEARCH ANYTHING ON DENIM ..
    Just visit the at Denim Search Engine . I use it regularly for searching various denim related articles and I thought it might come in handy to others as well..This engine SEARCHES ONLY DENIM RELATED WEBPAGES

    How do I use this Search Engine ?

    a)To find which Denim Brands(well known) has created Color Jeans,I would just
    make a search ‘Color’ and click on ‘DENIM BRANDS’ label in the search results
    and I would know that the brands that have come out with color denims.

    b)If I need to find a job in New York for a denim designer, I would just search ‘NewYork Designer’ and in the search result, I would CLICK on ‘DENIM JOBS’ label and instantly get this list of denim jobs in USA.
    c)Buyers –Since nobody employed me 🙂 , I decided to export some denims to USA and searched ‘USA’ and in the search results, I clicked on ‘DENIM BUYERS’ and I found a long list of buyers (on various sites) who had current enquiries on denim.
    d)Recent articles : I sometimes need to know what kind of posts people are making about various brand names. But it is difficult to find in reverse order – the date of posts . Now, suppose in this engine, I search for ‘DVB’..In the search results, I click on ‘RECENT4) and I get the latest posts related to DVB brand. It kind of enables one to keep track of what people are saying about your brand.Also I can check out if some top news sites have made a mention regarding DVB and I click on the label ‘TOP NEWS SITES’ and I find that Reuters had a news item on them recently.
    e)Denim Blogs : It is interesting to search any term and then click on ‘DENIM BLOGS’ label in the search results. It gives an idea what top denim bloggers (including myself 🙂 ) think about that search term..No need now to search all these different blogs to find any relevant articles.

    Now the Denim Search Engine Search box is available right here on our site. On the right panel, you willl see the search box . Just make any search on Denim and use the Labels like ‘Denim Blogs’, ‘Buy Jeans’ etc to refine the results.


  • Evisu Spring Summer ’09 Collection

    Evisu Deluxe Spring Summer ’09 collection follows the first voyage of a Japanese ship sailing to America (in 1860).It draws from the historical references of the time and tries to combine the best of Japanese and American tailoring..As the Evisu blog mentions, the ‘tailoring is inspired by the naval details such as shaped patch pockets,a high buttoning reefer jacket,sailor collars and wide legged cuffed trousers’ .
    The denim collection is also inspired by the LEE brand(H.D Lee company was founded in 1889). The collection uses a newly developed selvedge denims including No.13LEFT- a Japanese woven reproduction of the denim fabrics used by LEE 1910s onwards.Jeans cut from 13LEFT denim have the leather patch sewn on the left side of the waistband.

    Sea Washed(!) : The jeans have been hand washed in the sea and dried on the rocks nearby.This means that the washing effects will be subtle and denim will be hard (no chemicals to soften the denim are used).’Whiskering’ and ‘honeycombing’ will come with time as the jeans wears out..Exclusive tailoring is used whereby each jeans is tailored by a single operator who signs each completed pair(if I am correct -Earnest Sewn also uses such tailoring techniques to ensure quality).
    The overall effect of all the above mentioned techniques would probably give a clean ,natural looking jeans with somewhat trouser looks. Here is a Evisu’s SS09 Milan Spring Summer Video
    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWgbzmh-QQ&eurl=http://www.evisu.com/blog/2008/07/09/evisus-ss09-milan-spring-summer-video/]

    Related Links on Evisu:
    Evisu Autumn Winter ’08 Milan Men’s Show
    Evisu Autumn Winter’08 Milan Show Video
    Backstage photos at Milan ’09 Show

  • Denim dos and don’ts – check before buying jeans

    Do questions like these come in your mind while buying jeans

    Can everyone wear Skinny Jeans?

    How low should be low rise jeans?

    Should I buy high-waisted jeans as it seems to be coming in trend?

    Is there a style of jeans that is universally flattering?

    How can I pull off a dress and jeans look?

    Is grey denim a do or don’t?

    Then check out this video and see what Jess Zaino- style expert has to say about these
    and more of such questions.

    Visit this video link     http://www.videojug.com/interview/dos-and-donts-for-denim

  • Denim Search Engine

    Searching for queries on Google or Yahoo related to Denim, Jeans, Denim brands,Denim apparel, Denim Reports and Statistics is normally a pain since so many results are there(and many are irrelevant) that it is difficult to separate good results from the bad..
    Check out This Search Engine which is specially made for Denim Search . I found results not very bad and the good thing is that even the pages down the line ie pages 3rd,4th, 5th and so on, also have some relevant information. However, it would be good to have some comments on the same from other users..

  • Self Edge – the cool denim store in San Francisco


    Though most of the denim afficionados might be aware of this store, I think its worth a post on this blog because of its importance to denim lovers.
    Self Edge is a store in San Francisco and is not the typical retail store where one goes and buys out the apparel. As you enter, you can feel that it has that ‘air of denim’ which is full of passion and history.As New York Times mentions
    ,Self Edge is “something between a premium specialty shop and a museum dedicated to a yearning for past quality — a sentiment easily detected in the antique wooden furniture and Persian rugs that decorate the shop”.
    Most of the denim labels found here are of Japanese origin made with Selvedge denim, though some other brands are also found.Brands like Iron Heart,Sugarcane,Nudie Jeans,The Flat head are found here(some of them exclusively).It becomes difficult for newcomers to understand why these brands here are retailed for prices like USD 200 and going up to USD 500 and sometimes more. But, the passion that goes into the building of these jeans also goes into retailing of these brands at stores like Self Edge..
    Keep Going Self Edge………..

  • Victoria Beckham sues Rock and Republic – lessons for Celebrity denim labels

    The trendy posh spice Victoria Beckham, has sued the denim brand Rock & Republic for USD 100 million.
    Victoria was engaged by Rock and Republic in 2004 to endorse their denim brand. Subsequently, she broke with them and started her own label – DvB denim . However, the label has not been faring too well recently . On the other hand, the Rock and Republic line that she had endorsed seems to have done very well. And, Victoria feels that Rock and Republic should pay her USD 100 million for additional profits earned(which seems quite ridiculous)..
    Here is a lesson to be learned by the celebrities the world over – who are following this trend of launching their denim label to encash their celebrity status. The celebrities have to understand that Denim is a specialised product and those who do not understand it , should not jump into it. Their hundreds and thousands of labels available and the customers need a very strong reason ,besides their name, to buy the label. Initial crowds can be drawn on the basis of celebrity image but sales cannot be sustained on the same.
    Another example of Paige Premium Denim would be very appropriate here. Adams Geller was a famous model who endorsed denim labels like 7 for all Mankind, True Religion and made them popular . She then launched her own label – Paige Premium – and made it successful. The reason was that Adams Geller thoroughly understood denim,its customers requirements,fit issues and most of all SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH DENIM. Her celebrity status must have made initial things easier for her,but it was her passion about Denim which made the label successful.
    So, all the celebrities out there- I hope you are listening. Don’t just follow the herd and launch a Denim label.

  • Cone Denim opens manufacturing plant in Nicaragua

    Cone Denim of the ITG Group has formally opened its Nicaragua plant for the manufacturing of 28 million metres of denim. Employing about 850 people, it is their first venture in the Central Americas.
    Cone denim already has manufacturing facilities in the US,Mexico and China and partnerships in India(recently with LNJ Denim) and Turkey.
    At a time when Denim is going through a downturn, it is surprising to see the confidence with which Cone Denim is not only expanding operations but entering into various partnerships around the world. The previous record of Cone, however, related to partnerships has not been very good .Its previous partnership with the Indian company Ashima Denims (which was entered into late 1990s) did not proceed very well and broke early.

  • ‘Denim’,’Premium Denim’ search trend on Google

    Google Trends is a very interesting service from Google which enables us to find what is the trend for search on particular keywords.
    I checked the trends for search on two keywords – Denim and Premium Denim..
    The results are interesting:

    1)Search trend for ‘Denim’:

    a)The search volume for the keyword ‘Denim’ is almost the same since 2004. However, it peaked in the
    year 2005 (when Denim was on a high).
    b)The country from where the highest search for ‘Denim’ originated was , understandably, USA.
    But it was surprising to see Australia coming at number 2 position in ALL TIME Search for ‘Denim’.
    Wow, I did’nt realize that Australians were so fond of Denims.
    2)Search Trend for ‘Premium Denim’

    a)Before the year 2007 , there was hardly any volume of search for ‘Premium Denim’. Though the Premium Denim trend had started in 2004 or before, the general public really got sucked in the trend as late as 2007 only.Hence we can also see a large number of new Premium Denim labels spring up in the last 2 years..
    b)Again, its the USA which tops the list for the search.However,the second place is taken by CANADA . No doubt, we can see a lot of Canadian Premium Labels springing up !! .. Austalia is again third indicating its strong affiliation to Denim..

  • Denim Mills-Worldwide (India,China,Turkey,Pakistan & more)

    I often need to check out various Denim Mills around the world – just to see what they are doing. It was a painful task to keep track of their web addresses and then individually search their sites and the web. Now I have found a very easy and clean way to checkout all these mills around the world in a few minutes.
    Visit this List of Denim Mills Worldwide and you will see the site of Cone Denim of US opened. You can easily browse through the site. Now, you will see NEXT button on the top left . Click on the same and you will see site of another Denim Mill from USA. Also below the TITLE (on the blue frame) there is written the country name – USA. When we click on this, the names of other countries slide down. One can easily select any country name and the DENIM MILL sites of that country will start opening.
    What if I want to see which companies are covered from one country ?
    Easy… Just click on the TITLE and you will see slide down of names of companies in that country and one can click on any name and open their site..
    I could cover Denim Mills from many countries like Turkey, Italy, USA,Spain, India, Pakistan, China,Taiwan,Hongkong, Japan, Bangladesh etc etc.. I think its really cool.. Would be good to have comments of the readers.
    Also don’t forget to open the category of DENIM TRENDS (which will come alongwith the country list) to see the latest trends in Denim.
    And for those looking for some Buyers of Denim and Buyers of Jeans , click accordingly..

    Note: Click on the category name to open other categories. Also,click on TITLE to see other links in that category. Eg if you see ‘USA denim mills ‘ category, click on the same to reach the companies in other countries. OR JUST KEEP ON CLICKING NEXT..

    Alternatively you can just check the Denim Mills Directory