Further to my previous post on the fall in imports of Men’s and Boys Jeans in US, there is further news coming about the fall in sales of Men’s Jeans. As per NPD (in New York times), the sale of men’s Jeans has fallen by 1% for the year ending in August 2007 – and this has happened first time after years of rising sales. And who has benefited from this fall in sales ?
It is the TROUSERS – which has shown an increase of 7% in sales. New York times says that Men are now getting more interested in Trousers – which can set them apart from being just another Jeans guy..
The Denims reign the fashion world like no other product can and it would be difficult to dethrone it. But there is a saturation level even for Denims and people may go for a break and flirt with other products. And this may cause chinks in the armour of Denim..
Author: Sandeep Agarwal
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Jeans down – Trousers Up ?
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Sugarcane Denim – A Unique Denim Brand From Japan
Ever heard of the famous Japanese Denim Brand – Sugarcane. ?
The unique thing about these Jeans is that they are made from Sugarcane fibre mixed with cotton threads. These threads are dyed in natural dyes(mostly) and then Selvedge denims is woven over 40+ year old Shuttle looms – resulting in a very unique texture due to all these processes..
These can be called truely Vintage denims and are rightly termed as Dungarees and not Jeans.
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US imports of Mens/Boys jeans down 6.8% in 2007(Jan-Sept)
The imports of Mens/Boys Jeans into US seems to have slowed down since the second quarter of this year. The total imports under this category is down by 6.8% .. This fall is significant in view of the boom that Denim was going through..
US Import figures for M/B Jeans in 2007New Page 1 Year Ist Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd quarter Total % change 2006 4.2 6.2 7.6 18.1 2007 4.1 5.7 7.0 16.8 -6.8% All figures are in Million Dozens.
Source : US Customs
Interesting…
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US denim fabric imports Jan-Sept 2007 remain same as 2006
It is very interesting to see the figures of imports of DENIM FABRICS into the US.
As we all know, US has seen the boom in Premium Denim labels market in the 3 -4 years.
As a result the main manufacturing of Jeans in the US is for these labels only. For price
concious buyers, all the Jeans have to be imported as US is not competitive to do so.The figures of Imports of Denim for the periods Jan-Sept 2006 and 2007 are EXACTLY SAME.. This shows that the slowdown expected in the production of Premium Denim labels has not yet come and the manufacturing of Jeans is almost at the same levels as last year..
However, what is interesting to note is the figures of exports of individual countries to the US in 2007. Lets have a lookUS IMPORTS OF DENIM FABRICS FROM JAN -SEPT 2007
New Page 1 Country Jan- Sept 2006 Jan-Sept 2007 % change World 34.37 million sq mtrs 34.37 0 Italy 6.9 10.06 +45% China 8.57 8.59 +0.2% Taiwan 4.91 4.04 -17% Turkey 2.29 3.34 +50% Japan 4.0 2.95 -26% Mexico 3.47 2.50 -27% India 1.25 .14 -88% Note : All figures are in Million Square metres .
Source : US Customs
As we see above :
a)The countries to lose their shares of exports pie are JAPAN, INDIA and MEXICO..
JAPAN has lost some share to Italy as Italy has started to catch up with
the Japanese denim and is able to offer similar quality at lower prices.
INDIA – has been a laggard and has now totally lost the race. In any case, India was nowhere in the reckoning for the Premium Denim(even with companies like Arvind present here).
MEXICO – has been losing share continously because of non- competitiveness.
b) Out of the main gainers are ITALY and TURKEY.
ITALY – as mentioned above , has tried to catch up with Japan and has succeeded to some
extent.
TURKEY – is the surprise gainer . Though they had been doing good denims, they seem to have come up with some good denims for the brands in US..It does portend well that the PRemium Denim is not losing the sheen as yet.. However, it may not last very long as Premium Denim also becomes commodotised..
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Craziest looking jeans
I have seen many crazy kind of Jeans but this one beats them all..How would people look walking around in them? Found them here
But frankly, I won’t be surprised if these get picked up as a fashion trend by some crazy teenagers.. -
‘Wrangler Girl’ from VF for Indian market
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Wrangler(VF Corp) India is launching a new sub-brand ‘Wrangler Girl’ .This brand shall be specificially targetted at young women.
Wrangler has mainly been a male focused brand, though internationally they also have a brand for middle aged women – ‘Wrangler Aura’.Why did Wrangler feel the need to bring out this brand in India ?
In India, there are hardly any good female denim brands. Most of the brands are focused on Males and female denim demand has been largely met by the unbranded players. I have scoured many shops to find a good female denim brand, but most of them out there seem to have made half hearted attempts.The reasons are not far to seek. The Indian females like too much of embellishments and like in other markets, the designs go out of favour very soon..Therefore the branded players find it difficult to cater properly to this segment of market..
However,the fact that the number of working women is rising and the offices are relaxing their dressing rules to allow denims, a good market potential has generated.. These women are looking for elegant ,feminine looks (without getting flashy) andWrangler seeks to tap this potential through “Wrangler Girl’.The price range is Rs 1200 and above – upto Rs 3000..
Wrangler seeks to target about 25% of its denim turnover from the women segement..Lets see if they are able to do it.. Designing has never been the strongest point with Wrangler
Related Posts:
Marketing Campaigns by Indian Denim Brands
VF to push value denimwear in India -
What makes premium denims in L.A tick?
Often people wonder why of all the places Los Angeles became the Premium Denim capital of the world. How did the process of globalisation reverse in case of premium denims where the production sent overseas came back to US ?
L.A had a very developed denim production and large scale productions were done for companies like Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Pepe,Abercombie & Fitch,Calvin Klein etc..
Alongwith stitching, the facilities for washing and designing were quite developed.. However, as the orders for mass productions started going overseas, the producers were left with little choices . They had to either shut down or change the way they did business. Fortunately for them, Japan had revived the concept of Antique/Heritage denim where they were trying to replicate the Jeans from the 40s to 70s..
The concept was picked up by L.A manufacturers and they focused themselves on making small quantities of high priced Premium Denims.. All the infrastructure was in place(see this article by NY times)
The machine processes started getting replaced by hand processes (esp in washing). Companies like CAITAC GARMENT PROCESSING – which used to wash jeans for USD2 in bulk, started getting paid upto USD 30 for washing premium denims..Their sand blasting machines got replaced with various other alternative processes like balooning or small instruments which involved much more human touch – whether to create whiskers , distressed looks etc..Garment processors like Caitac became favourites of Premium denim companies like Sevens,Earl jeans,Earnest Sewn,True Religion etc..Later even Levi’s had to turn to Caitac to develop its premium denim line..Now most of the premium denim labels outsource their stitching and washing .. They focus on marketing and use companies like Caitac to do all their work..
Now coming back to our question on why L.A became the Premium Denim capital :- It is because of availability of all infrastructure mentioned above . The companies could easily outsource their highly labour and specialised activities.. Biggest of all , there was a ready market nearby which was fired up with the Premium Denim trend …What other ingredients can one ask for to make a success of a business???
Also check out this interesting Audio slide from NY times on L.A Denim
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Jeans dyed 48 times in Natural Indigo
Can you believe that Denim can be dyed 48 TIMES ??
Well, seeing is believing. Here are some snaps from Kappa Jeans which claims to dye their Denims 48 times in NATURAL INDIGO..See here
and here
But whatever may be the actual number of dips in Indigo, the Denim is Really Cool..
Related Posts:
Natural Indigo Dye Extraction Process -
Persimmon Juice Denim??
Ever hear of Persimmon Juice Denim ?
Persimmon – tanin dyeing is a Japanese dyeing and is called Kaki – Shibu Dyeing.
Persimmon is an extremely bitter kind of fruit and its juice is full of dark brown tanin which is used in place of Indigo for dyeing the cotton.
When the denim is dyed with this juice , it achieves dark brown color. This color tends to darken with oxidation and thus the Jeans will darken with time.Some Japanese brands like Samurai make these kind of jeans, though in limited edition only..
Some interesting snaps of such jeans are given below :
THE DENIM FABRIC WITH KAKI-SHIBU DYEING
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Evisu DD +1 Jeans project
Evisu has launched a new Denim Project called Dirty Dozen + 1 (DD+1) in association with Superfuture and the Blue in Green store in NY . 13 people are wearing a pair each of special customized jeans from Evisu – hand painted by a famous Japanese artist. The jeans shall be worn for a period of 13 months and evaluated….
I like the way Evisu spends time and energy in getting out products which will have ‘TIME APPEAL’ – ie they will be become better with time and age like OLD WINE… I would have liked to know the kind of fabric they are using in this project .. Will post when available….
Want to see how the jeans has been hand painted ? See here
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Grungy Denim . A new trend for 2008?
There have been some forecasts that a new trend for Spring/Summer 2008 may be the GRUNGY DENIM..….
These Jeans basically have a patchy high contrast bleached look – the 80s punk look.
Though this washing style has not been noticed in many brands, there are some points that merit attention:
a)The current trends in denim looks the world over follow from the Premium Denim brands. These brands are basically encashing their expertise in providing a high quality fabric, washed and sanded nicely(many times hand sanded) and with some standout embellishments like Pocket designing etc. Of course the importance of FIT can never be forgotten as one of their primary strengths.
b)These trends are being followed in some measure by other manufacturers around the world – who are also trying to provide the similar jeans at a lower cost.
c)In the last 1-2 years there has been no distinctive denim look which has come in and the current washes and looks are getting somewhat jaded and there is a need for something fresh.Thus there IS A NEED for some FRESH LOOK IN DENIMS. However, whether that will be GRUNGY LOOK or something else remains to be seen..I feel that a look similar to GRUNGY may come in provided it is MORE ELEGANT looking and does not give the PUNKISH or a CHEAP look. Designed Patchiness or GRUNGINESS (nice terminology i think !) may be considered an option for the next year.
Some Grungy Jeans from Cheap Monday ….
