The premium line from Diesel – The Diesel Black Gold – seems to have inspired from the Great Depression era of the early 20s .
In men’s wear, the collection included impoverished looking men with their wrinkled and mended suits .Wilbert Das ,however, said that one of his influences for this FW09 collection was a return to the origins of jazz.
The denim had basically more of black patches or smoky grey effects and some of them were baggies. Are the grey and the black more suitable colors for the economically challenged periods ? Maybe.. But we have been hearing of smoked blackish denim coming back for a long time but haven’t yet seen it make an impact .
A report by CottonInc brings out the latest facts and trends in the jeans consumption in the US. It corroborates our previous report that the consumption and imports of Jeans in the US in 2008 was about 5% more than that in 2007.
Here are some interesting facts from the report:
a) US consumers:Own about 15 denim garments each on an average.
Out of these are 7 pairs of jeans.
Of all apparel purchased , denim formed 17% ( remember ,denim is the highest selling
clothing item in the world.
Are buying more of denim especially now since denim is more value for money.
b)Brand loyalty: Brand loyalty is quite high across genders,income levels and age groups.
73% of the consumers preferred to buy the same brand of jeans they owned.
64% of men and 45% of women preferred the same brand of jeans for 6 years.
What is interesting to note is that brand loyalty has been generated due to product
features rather than brand name. 66% consumers listed fit as the most important factor
for buying a jeans rather than its name (1%)
c)Price sensitivity:Price senstivity is going to increase in the year 2009. Though only 9% respondents
mentioned price as the reason to buy a brand, over 26% mention price will be the most
imp factor in the next purchase. With the economy slowing down, we should not be
surprised if this figure increases further.
Average price that a consumers were willing to pay for a good fitting jeans fell down from
$36.10 in January 2008 to $ 32.13 in October 2008.
d) Denim Imports:Mexico , China and Bangladesh remained the top three exporters of jeans to US in
2008.They exported (till September 2009) the following million units of jeans : Mexico – 92.8 million units China – 55.6 million units Bangladesh – 39.1 million units Egypt – 23.4 million units Hongkong – 23.2 million units
Out of these, Bangaldesh had the lowest average price of jeans exported – $5.07 against
a world average export price of $ 7.45
Going by these figures and previous reports coming in regarding denim consumption in the US, we get the indications that the consumption of denim/jeans would perhaps not experience the serious fall in consumption as expected in other clothing (esp fashion products) items. The reason is clear – consumers want to invest in jeans as – it lasts longer, can be worn at wide variety of occasions, offers wide price ranges and remains its fashion appeal. Will we see the market share of some clothing items cannabalised by
Jeans ?.
Another lesson , oft repeated, for jeans producers is that FIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT factor consumers . Identify your target consumers and give them the best fits possible.Though quality of denim, wash, brand name all are important, they are secondary to THE FIT ..
Want your jeans to reflect your unique personality ? For those denim maniacs who want their jeans to look their second persona, check out these tips from Fashion Idie
Avoid washing your jeans – jeans should not be washed too much- it washes away the unique patterns that are being developed on the jeans.
Don’t be scared to get dirty
Sleep in your jeans! – Though not very comfortable , it will result in forming stronger creases on the jeans.
Sweat is good– let the sweat loosen the fabric of your jeans.
Basic dark colored and unwashed jeans – It would be better if you take darker indigo denim with little or no wash so that there is a plenty of room for denim effects to take place.
Let defects happen naturally – don’t create cuts or defects yourself. Let them happen as you wear the jeans..Trekking, playing football etc might be good ideas to expedite the defects on your jeans.
Wear them in the shower– or even swim in them .. Lets jeans resize more to your shape.
Dry them in shade and turned inside out – prevents undue color loss.
Wear them as often as possible-The more you wear, the faster the effects get ingrained onto your jeans.
And if you still don’t get the desired results in a year (yes, it takes that much time), just distress them!
Gordon Heffner is the owner of the Denim shop Blue in Green in New York. This shop is one of the best shops in the world for buying Japanese denims.
In an interview to Tokyo Eye, Gordon tells about some specialities of the jeans from Japan and takes us through a tour of Tokyo denim market.
Some highlights of the video:
Have a look at Green tea dyed, Persimmon dyed or even MUD dyed jeans . Sugarcane denim made from 50% sugarcane extract is also interesting.
Distressing of jeans: Can you age your jeans without destroying the fabric a little ? The normal techniques used for ageing the jeans are with sandblasting or sandpaper scrubbing. However, there are some solutions available which can age the jeans without affecting the fabric.
Vintage Jeans: Can anyone spend upto 3 years to recreate a vintage a tattered 150 years old jeans? Some denim maniacs in Japan do
Do you want to see the content from Denimsandjeans.com at another place – say your website or blog.
It would be very easy to do it now. Here are some widgets which you can use to see live content from our site .
1. Panoramic Slideshow: With this widget, you can easily see all the photos on our site in a slideshow. See the widget here . Just click on ‘Grab Widget’ at the bottom to get the code for this widget. Just paste this widget on any site/blog and see the photos from our site alongwith the titles of the posts where they are posted.
During the recent New York Fashion Week, Miss Sixty brought out a new style of Jeans – Harem Skinny Jeans.
This is a balloon shaped Jeans with drop crotch and surprisingly a skinny fit..
This is a completely new style and it needs to be seen how it gets received . However, I have a feeling that this kind of jeans will be suitable for only a particular built as it may blow the figure out of proportions for many.
As I mentioned in my previous report, there was a fall of about 10% in the first quarter for the total jeans imported into US. However, we now see a decent 7% improvement in the second quarter corresponding to the same quarter last year.. Here is a chart comparing the two years data by quarter..
Mens Jeans Imports into US 2007 & 2008 – Quarter wiseNew Page 1
Quarter
2007(million pcs)
2008(million pcs)
Fall/Rise(%)
First
49.26
43.99
-10.69%
Second
68.56
73.60
+7.29%
Third
84.62
Fourth
71.44
The third and the fourth quarters are the main quarters when we see the volumes jumping. We will have a much better idea only at the end of the third quarter. But if my guess is correct , the imports in the third quarter may register a fall and the improvement that we see in the second quarter is temporary.
Here are some cool denim ‘How to ..’ videos from across the net – simple but instructive . HOW TO BRUSH A WHISKER ON DENIM JEANS
Ever wanted to create that odd whisker on your jeans but are afraid it may spoil your jeans. See here how you can do it easily with a sandpaper .The sand paper is folded in “V” shade so that the centre part of the whisker is heavier & edges are feathered out.
HOW TO BUY HIGH WAIST DENIM ?
Buying High waist denim is confusing for many .Here is a little guide from an expert
HOW TO CONVERT YOUR JEANS INTO A MINI SKIRT
This one is cool and of interest to all females. Just cut out your old jeans and get a great looking skirt.
Are you in love with Skinny Jeans but don’t want to go out and buy one. No worries, just see here HOW TO CONVERT YOUR NORMAL JEANS TO SKINNY.
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Looking at Evisu Jeans, I was encouraged to paint my jeans , but did not know how to go about it.
This video on ‘HOW TO PAINT JEANS‘ helped …
Is there a way to search for the latest on Denim Trends? Searching Google news might be one option and searching a host of other denim sites may be another option. But I like to look at search for latest in denim from the denim search engine which searches all these sites at one go. Here are some links that I would like to share :
a)Denim trends in last one year : this link gives the search results for the last one year related to denim trends.
Use the drop down option at the top to see results for last month or day etc.
b)What kind of jeans denim forums and denim blogs are talking about lately?
c)What are the latest styles of jeans of existing brands and some new brands which have come up in last one month..
And to know which jeans the Top News Channels/Sites are talking about, just check out here
Cool checking….
Levi’s India plans to vacate the middle price segment and concentrate on the lower and the higher ends.Its Signature brand – which is the value offering – will see a further fall in price and start at Rs 900 instead of Rs 1000(USD 22 instead of USD 24 approx.). On the other hand, the premium segment will see an increase of about 15% in average pricing and increase to about Rs 2400(about USD 58). The report by Economic Times also mentions that in the next six months, the company will roll out its high-fashion, high-end brand Levi Rivet nationally.
The company is also planning to increase its adspend significantly during the next few months as it sees a slowdown and counts on its advertising to perk up the sales and take an increasing share in the 10 million value jeans and about 3 million premium jeans market in India.
Levi’s has been continously moving in the direction of vacating the mid-priced segement – as I mentioned in a previous post also and probably this is a sign of times to come for many large denim labels. The mid-priced segment of the Jeans is experiencing the miniumum growth and its share is being taken up by local brands who are more adaptable to local conditions (in India brands like Spykar,Killer etc)
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 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/]
