Denimandjeans | Global Trends, News and Reports | Worldwide

Tag: denim

  • Want to Join the Tommy Hilfiger ‘Hall of fame’?

    hilscreencarnabyst4.jpgStarting from today, customers in certain cities around the world can add their photographs to the Hilfiger ‘Hall of fame’. Some of the Hilfiger stores in London, Amsterdam, Cologne, Antwerp and Dublin will feature through window Touch Screens and camera which will enable the casual passers by to capture their images and submit to the Hilfiger Hall of fame. What it means is that the user submitted images will be shown on the Digital Screens inside the stores.
    At the end of the campaign, the customers can go to the stores and get T-shirts printed with images they submitted.
    I feel that it is a very intelligent marketing campaign.It has been finely crafted and needs to be praised.

    On the one hand Lot of Media hype will be created around the campaign – drawing lot of customers to the stores. Secondly, the casual passers by have been given the freedom to play around without any pressure of buying any product . Thirdly, with the time and effort put in creating own images, many customers will return to the store to get their T-shirts (and pay!).

    I don’t know how much Tommy Hilfiger has invested in this campaign, but it looks sure to make much more than it invested…

  • Levi’s India changes marketing and pricing strategies

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    Levi’s India is changing the marketing strategies for its Denims and Non-Denim brands. On the one hand it is seeking to expand its presence in the Premium and Super-Premium segment by launching more products in this segment. On the other hand, it is seeking to strengthen its Value Brand – Signature. Launched last year and priced between Rs 599-Rs999(USD 15- USD 25) in small towns and upto Rs 1399(USD 35) in larger towns,Signature seeks to capture a large share of the Value segment of Branded Jeans – which is currently estimated at about 10 million units – by having more than 5000 sale points for the same throughout India (as against 1000 currently).

    In the Premium segment the prices are in the range of Rs 2000-4000(USD 50-USD75), Super premium has price range of Rs 4000-6000(USD 75-100) and Connosieur segment is Rs 6000-12000(USD 150-300). Levi’s wants to increase its presence in these segments. It however does not want to be present in the Mid Price Segment ie Rs 1000-2000(USD 25-50) .Thus Levi’s India is following the International trends where Value and Premium segments are expected to do better than the mid priced segments. The Value offering of Signature is Levis’ take on the local Indian brands who are selling decent jeans in the range of Rs 600-Rs1200/ – but who do not have the brand value of Levi’s.
    The estimates for the market of Premium and Super Premium denim in India are about 7 million and 3 million (though I need to verify the same) and offer substantial possibilities for growth for brands like Levi’s.However, the going will not be as smooth since Levi’s will not be able to offer great washes in its Signature line – and washes are one of the biggest factor for purchase of Jeans by the young.

  • The Global Denim Project – Contribute Information to it..

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    Denim has become a universal phenomenon and has enabled it to become much more than a fabric – a Concept, a statement , a way of life and much more. Its no more an American product and has entered deep into the psyche of people worldwide as one of the best textile products ever made. Its Globalization combined with the Individualsation through distressing and other effects has anthropologists around the world interested in studying denim as a subject.
    The Global Denim Project is an attempt to persuade as many academics as possible to consider studying denim over the next five years.These are expected to include historians, people concerned with the economics of the industry,and anyone interested in Denim.
    Various projects have been started the World over and include projects like a study of denim, sexuality and the body in Italy, to a study of trashed denim shoddy and its uses in recycling (until recently a third of US dollar bills were denim shoddy). Other proposals include denim in China, Japan and Korea, a study of how blue jeans record the movements of the body in their wear, and a proposal to work on the pressures towards ethical trade in denim in Turkey and Brazil.The intention behind the global denim project is to provide a meeting place for anyone from any discipline who wants to carry out academic research on the topic of denim.
    I am not surprised at this level of interest in Denim. Denim has broken many a barriers and boundaries . It has enabled a street worker to wear a product which a billionaire may also be wearing. It has broken the barriers of Sex, Countries, Customs and Traditions in almost the entire world..Hail Denim !

    Those who are interested to contribute any information or a project, visit The Global Denim Project

  • 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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