Stefano Aldighieri – the well-known denim veteran – spoke about various aspects of the denim industry in a talk with Sandeep Agarwal during the 2nd Denimsandjeans Virtual show held on Oct 14-15. He spoke in detail about various aspects of the industry right from Fibre to Retail and how they have evolved during 2020 and how they may be impacted in the near future.
On fibre , he said, “Cotton was, is and will always be the king fiber for the denim industry”.
Stefano was emphatic that cotton will always remain the most important fiber as there is no immediate replacement for it. He mentioned that recycled polyester is getting very popular but he had issues with it as it is a petroleum product and even if it is recycled, the issues of microfibres will always remain with it. He was for cellulosic fibers like Tencel as they can be recycled at the end of the life cycle. He hoped that people would use more and more of the ancient fiber Hemp and it is a very good candidate to reduce dependence on water. For a stretch, he was not enthusiastic as it not recyclable but he felt that recyclable elastomers like Roica. Another one that is interesting is natural rubber and if that is used, it would help greatly in recycling.
On the fabric side, he felt that companies should rationalize fabric developments with a limited number of warps, and companies can save money and waste and have better margins. Not many changes in constructions. Regarding antiviral properties in the fabric finishes, he felt that they are not much useful. He felt, however, that antimicrobial properties in the garments can help in reducing the number of washes a consumer makes. The water-saving can happen maximum at the fibre stage and at the consumer end. In between, there are limited possibilities to save water.
Coming to nearshoring, he was optimistic that micro-factories near the market would spread in the near future and help in creating faster responses to the market with these smaller units with bulk production still happening in cheaper locations.
On the design front, he felt that the designs would be simpler, with better fabrics, better constructions, and can be used for a longer time. But it’s really important to think about circularity at the design stage itself.
In retail, he felt that they would be the biggest losers. Traditional retail was already in trouble and of course online retail would get bigger and bigger.
It was a very engrossing discussion where Stefano came out with some very forceful points that the industry should consider. Do check out the complete interview from this link.
Recently Denimsandjeans held a webinar ‘What Next For Denim’ with some of very well known and globally reputed denim professionals . The panelists included :
1. Albert Candiani (Owner – Candiani Mills) 2. Aamir Akhtar (CEO- Arvind Mills) 3. Alberto De Conti( Head Of Fashion Division- Rudolf) 4. Maurizio Donadi (Co-Founder – Atelier & Repairs) 5. Carlos Arias (CEO- Jeanologia) 6. Stefano Aldighieri( President – Another Design Studio)
The talk was moderated by Sandeep Agarwal and Stefano Aldighieri . We now bring the comments of the panelists of our key questions related to denim industry in a series of six articles with each article giving clear views of each panelist.
In the current article, we bring the thoughts of Stefano Aldighieri – ex creative head of Levi’s and 7FAM and currently running his own design studio . Besides co-moderating the panel, Stefano also shared his own views on various questions put forward at the panel. We share his original comments on some of the questions that were put to him during the discussion . (video of his talk is here )
What is the way forward for denim?
We need to look at reduction of quantities, we need to really look at the value priority for all of us and I think that’s going to change quite dramatically the way people buy, not only what they buy and why they buy. So the whole thing is pretty much going to be different.
One day we’ll wake up from the nightmare , we’re going to find a very different world and it’s actually up to us to make sure that it is a better world, because going back to the way things were before, it’s not something we should aspire to because normalcy, the old normality is what got us into this mess in the first place. So we should really take this opportunity to clean the slate, and start all over again in some shape or form. I know it’s utopian to think that we can reinvent the whole planet overnight, but I think there’s a lot of things that we can do, now that we know better. I think this is also, like some of us who were saying, this is basically accelerating the process that was already on its way. We are very sad to see a lot of big retailers going under now.
There’s going to be more and more bankruptcies. There’s a new one every day now but, to be absolutely fair and objective, we had way over capacity in retail, especially in the Western world. I’m not talking about emerging countries, where things are still in the early days, and hopefully they won’t make this mistake . We have way too many stores, and more importantly, we have too many stores selling exactly the same stuff with no differentiation.
The only differeantiation I’m trying to be 50 cents cheaper than you. That’s no differentiation, that’s just me trying to screw my suppliers more, so that I can try to keep my margins. That’s not a sustainable business. Sustainability is about the planet, but it’s also about the people, and it’s about the profits and if you don’t look at all the three elements you really have nothing. So I think at the end of day it is not as horrible as this is.
I think this is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to start fresh and start doing things better; I think that is there is a general misunderstanding in what design actually means, because to most people, and unfortunately even in our industry, the designer is just the guy or the girl that we ask â€let’s just make it prettyâ€, make it nice for the customer. That is a complete misunderstanding. The design process is what actually determines the whole lifecycle of the garment.
If we took more attention in the design process of our garments, the whole thing would be much easier . They look at ways on how they can minimize the footprint, but they’re trying to retrofit something in a process that is not designed for that. The right approach is actually to take a look at the whole life cycle of the garment from the get-go and say this is what my garment is, the lifecycle of a garment is this is, and what it’s going to happen to the garment at the end, when people stop using it, where is it going to go, how it’s going to be disposed of.
So you really have to look at every single step, let me look at the raw materials that I’m using, let me look at the yarns , where is the cotton coming from, where is the dye stuff coming from, which factory is going to make it, how they’re going to make it, what is the most efficient way to avoid waste for fabric, what kind of chemicals can I use, how to reduce my main packaging, how can I make sure that the packaging does not just end up on the shop floor, and how do I make sure that the garment at the end of the day when it’s exhausted, its usefulness as a garment, maybe can can be used again for something else. So being able to be recycled – to be upcycled, down cycled – and somehow avoid it going into a landfill.
What are the 3 key things the denim industry needs to do?
It’s three priorities. One is pretty much a given, we will have to look into rationalizing both fabric basis and garment basis because it’s quite frankly out of control. We think we’re also smart but we are really a bunch of idiots. How many fabrics have you made over the history of your company – maybe fifteen thousand, but how many of those are really truly different fabrics. Similarly, how many fabrics have you made just because we cannot say no to a customer – I say no we have this one, it’s exactly what you need, and eventually we end up looking at incredible amounts of stocks out there, and inventories piling up all over the place. That is all actually perfectly good, there’s nothing wrong with it, but we fell into this trap of this, it has to be new at all cost. We have to have a seasonal “newnessâ€.
What is the seasonal meaning in denim? Denim is the same fabric that you can wear all year round, a lot of these things are self-inflicted. So I think now we’re going to be forced to look at these things more rationally and the reduction of quantity will come as a consequence; I’m not advocating that we should raise our prices on everything. I understand very well there’s a lot of people who cannot afford to buy expensive clothes so it’s not like overnight we can say I reduced my quantities by 50% and increased my prices by 25% . It’s not that simple, but one thing that we should work on together as an industry is to try and educate people.
We’ve done a phenomenal job at mis-educating our customers, and let them believe that it was okay to buy all disposable stuff. I think people should realize that it’s not. An old saying says “I am too poor to afford cheap clothes†and it’s very true, if you buy cheap stuff , you end up spending a lot more at the end of the day because you’re going to have something that is not going to last, is not going to have any quality, any strength or anything. So that’s one major change that I want to see in the industry.
Second one, we’ve been talking , ad nauseam , about sustainability for the last three years, I hope people will not forget it right away. They say we’re in survival mode now we cannot afford to spend more to try to recycle or to try to make better use of our resources. I see recycling facilities are struggling right now . Used garments cannot be shipped because there’s a fear of contamination. So there’s a lot of issues that we need to need to focus on and the third one that I think is pretty essential is that we really need to start looking at the definition of partnership again because it’s something that people have been talking about for so long .
Partnership is out of the window, and so many customers have shifted into panic mode; it’s not a judgment call. I understand that when you’re really having your back to the wall , you have to look at trying to save your skin and it’s easier to look at the immediate problems that you have to face now. We have to be looking at the consequences down the line, but all these partnerships that we’ve been talking about are pretty much moot right now.
We need partnerships more than ever, brands, retailers, factories, textile operations. We all have to work together because that’s the only way to get out of this. We can’t just keep pushing the buck down the line and just allow the lowest part of the operation to suffer the most, that’s just not right.
Stefano also quickly answered some more questions which were raised by the participants at the webinar .
Q.How important is HEMP and HEMP-blends going to be in the next few years? A. I think the time is finally coming for Hemp to become a viable alternative to cotton. Q.How does the panel see traceability of denim (from seed to garment)? What role Blockchain will play in that traceability process? Is the industry ready to collaborate to form different consortia that drive full transparency and elevated efficiency? A. Traceability is indeed one of the biggest challenges that our industry faces; it has never been seriously tackled but it seems to be getting more traction now, there are a few interesting technologies already available, hopefully we will manage to find a common standard. Q.Could Denim Fabrics be 100% Recycled? A.Yes, it could; more importantly, can it be 100% recyclable? This is a more important question, and more difficult to answer. Q.Talking about Brands making mIstakes “Where do you think Iconic Brands like Diesel and EXPRESS stand? A. Diesel has been on an incredible trajectory for many years and eventually, I think, has become too big and lost its original “soulâ€. They should look back and stay true to what made them great in the beginning. I don’t think Express is an iconic brand, sorry!
Watch our all episodes of #CovidTimes talks and Webinar at our official YouTube channel
Continuing our series of #COVIDTIMES instagram live talks, Sandeep Agarwal spoke to Stefano Aldihieri – well known denim designer and consultant- from USA. He gave an idea of what he feels of the situation and how he feels it will affect our industry and working. We bring a synopsis of discussion held with him below .
Hey Stefano, how are you doing? Hope you and all your family and friends are ok?
Hey Stefano, how are you doing? Hope you and all your family and friends are ok?
Everything is ok. I am At home in a Lockdown. Things are pretty relaxed over here and that is why I think that’s actually going to be a real problem going forward . The way you guys in India doing it seems to be a little bit tighter, more similar to what China did, and I know it’s going to be really difficult for a lot of people in India.
So what do you think I mean how are you coping with this and what are you doing at a personal and professional level?
I came back from Europe, they blocked all the travels from Europe and the thing is I don’t think I’d be able to travel back to Europe for a while now, because it’s going to take a while for them to get things sorted. I’m pretty much in the same boat as most people. We cannot travel and we have to try and do some work from home. In our job, it’s difficult to do everything remotely but I am sure we can use the technology to communicate but when it comes to product there’s not much you can do.
You cannot really show a garment or you cannot touch it and you cannot really have a good feel. On top of that pretty much everything is frozen, as you know all the stores in Europe, in the states, in many parts of Asia are shut down, so there is absolutely zero commerce going on to trade.
What do you think about how much time it will take for the situation to come back to normal?
Nobody knows. If you look at what happened in other places: in China it took about two and a half months of lockdown for them to pretty much eradicate it. Now they have to be careful about the people traveling into the country. I think it’s pretty much under control, most factories have come back to work and the stores are reopening, so life is slowly going back to normal. Other countries, like if you look at Italy or Spain or other places in Europe, I think they have reached the peak of the spread, and so things will probably start to get better over the next few weeks.
Other parts of the world, like where we live and where you live, are going to take much longer because we’ve only just started. So here I’m afraid that we’re going to see the same situation as in Italy or Spain within the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be real bad real soon. I think we have just seen the beginning of it. In New York, It’s faster because of course, it’s a much more densely populated place and there’s a lot of people traveling from all over the place, so yes, this country is going to take a little bit longer. California is speeding up, although not as fast as New York, but it’s going to get up here and so yeah it’s not good. Obviously your guess is as good as mine, but I think we’re looking at months, not weeks.
How’s Industry gonna cope up?
It’s a catastrophe. All the stores have closed, the retailers are not selling anything, of course, they have started canceling all the orders because, while we can say it’s a horrible thing, we also need to consider that, there’s no point getting goods if you’re not going to sell them, and if you don’t have a place to store them, you’re not going to send it to the stores, when you know you’re not going to sell them now.
One could argue jeans are not a seasonal product, so you could say, yeah if I don’t sell it now, I can sell it in one month, two months from now. It’ll still be okay it’s not a perishable goods. Other product is going out of fashion fast, but at the same time if there are no people working in the warehouse, then how do you even take the goods in. Also, all the retailers, especially in Europe, still have to pay all their employees –it is not like here, where they fire everybody overnight and then possibly rehire them when things reopen. So European retailers are all carrying huge costs right now – huge overheads, and even without working they still have to pay rent, still have to pay utilities and salaries.
We just read this morning that Primark is refusing to pay millions and millions of dollars of rent, and I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Few more will follow you and one can imagine what happens when all the big retailers stop paying rent in those big malls. The other end the really tragic side is along the supply chain, because everybody’s now pushing the buck to the next stop, and of course factories are not making anything now, they’re not getting paid for the work they’ve done. And fabric companies can’t count on any new orders going forward, so they’re going to going to be stuck for a while, and then the yarn, and the dyestuff, and the finishing product… So the whole chain is affected, which is tragic.
Once this is over and people out again do you think there will be some changes in the way people will do the shopping and do you think the habits will change
Well, that’s a really good question because I’ve been thinking about that myself, on one hand, there’s going to be possibly an issue with the availability of goods because if you stop everything it’s not like you can turn the switch on, and everything starts flowing into your stores right away, especially with production being done so far from the markets. It takes time -it takes time – for fabric mills to restart, and then they’ll have to ship the fabrics the factories, and factories have to make the goods, and then either ship or fly them. Now even if you fly them, you’re looking at several weeks of gap between when we reopen and when goods can start flowing in again, there might be a temporary advantage for the factories that are close to the markets, so for the US, I think there will be Mexican factories. For Europe, you’re going to probably see Turkey, unless they get hit very badly – and maybe parts of Eastern Europe and North Africa; those could have a temporary advantage, but of course if they don’t have fabric then there’s no advantage.
On the other hand, for people going to stores, that is going to be interesting, because we’re going to have people who will come out after weeks or months and there could be two different reactions.
One is that people will have gotten used to it and will say, well, maybe I don’t need to buy all the stuff, and I don’t need to go to the stores every other day and pick up something that I don’t really need, and maybe I have different priorities now in life and I realize there are other things that are more important. Or there could be people that are so desperate to go back to and will go crazy again, but I think, even in such a case, availability is going to be an issue. Availability is going to be an issue if all the orders are going to be canceled, then there is going to be a gap when we re-open.
It’s going to be a really really bad year, as we may lose the entire summer season and we really have no idea, I think by winter we might be back to normal, but there will still be some issues, because of the forced closure. I have a feeling that some of the brands and retailers that were already shaky before, they probably shut down now and are not going to be able to reopen, and some of the factories that are being hit now by the cancellations will not really have the means to go back to work, so they won’t be able to rehire their workers. Some governments will have to take extraordinary measures to make up for the difference and they will try to prioritize what is best for their countries.
For the retailers who are canceling currently, I thought that instead of canceling if they just offered a kind of a moratorium for two months or three months and then restart the dialogue again, what your thoughts on it?
There’s no easy solution, but what is going to be interesting to see is how committed they will still be to the whole sustainability and ethical principles, all these companies. Because one thing is to say that you are you’re committed to doing everything socially right, and ethically right, and environmentally right when things go relatively well, but when you’re into an emergency like this you tend to forget those things.
You know they were all racing to who was the most sustainable company out there up to a few weeks ago? I want to see how many of those are really, really serious about it, and how many will not stick to those principles because being sustainable means also taking care of your partners in the supply chain, and I know it’s a really really difficult thing to do, because at some point you have to decide what you’re going to cut, what are you going to sacrifice, and unfortunately it is human nature to take care of the ones that are closer to you than the ones who are far away.
Positive takeaways from this situation and your advice?
Well, we have to try and be optimistic and I think this situation can bring out the worst in us, like people price gouging or taking advantage of this is, which is absolutely unforgivable, but there’s also a lot of people who are showing a lot of compassion towards the others. Finally realizing how much incredible work all the other people in the health care world are doing, like all these nurses and doctors and janitors who work in the hospitals.
They live really really hard lives for not such a great financial retribution, and they don’t even get a lot of satisfaction most of the time, we take those things for granted. Also, people will try to go and find something that is more durable and better quality than disposable, and that is great. I don’t know if you hear the birds here, nature is blooming right now, with less pollution, even my friend in Milano said the air is clean in Milano, we can breed finally, I even saw pictures of the canals in Venice with the water so clean and it’s incredible.
Hey Stefano, how are you doing? Hope you and all your family and friends are ok?
Everything is ok. I am At home in a Lockdown. Things are pretty relaxed over here and that I think that’s actually going to be a real problem going forward . The way you guys in India doing it seems to be a little bit tighter more similar to what China did and I know it’s going to be really difficult for a lot of people in India
So what do you think I mean how are you coping with this and what are you doing at a personal and professional level?
I came back from Europe, they blocked all the of the travels from Europe and the thing is I don’t think I’d be able to travel back to New York for a while now because it’s going to take a while for them to get things sorted. I’m pretty much in the same boat as most people. We cannot travel and we have to try and do some work from home. In our job, it’s difficult to do everything remotely but I am sure we can use the technology to communicate but when it comes to product there’s not much you can do.
You cannot really show a garment or you cannot touch it and you cannot really have a good feel. On top of that pretty much everything is frozen, so as you know all the stores in Europe in the state in many parts of Asia are shut down so there is absolutely zero commerce going on to trade.
What do you think about how much time it will take for the situation to come back to normal?
Nobody knows. If you look at what happened in other places in China it took about two and a half months of lockdown for them to pretty much eradicate it. Now they have to be careful about the people traveling into the country. I think it’s pretty much under control, most factories have come back to work and the stores are reopening, so life is slowly going back to normal. Other countries I think if you look at Italy or Spain or in other places in Europe I think they reach the peak of the spread and so things will probably start to get better over the next few weeks.
Other parts of the world like where we live and where you live, are going to take much longer because we’ve only just started. So here I’m afraid that we’re going to see the same situation as in Italy or Spain within the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be real bad real soon. I think we have just seen the beginning of it. In New York, It’s faster because of course, it’s a much more densely populated place and there’s a lot of people traveling from all over the place that I so the country is going to take a little bit longer. California is speeding up to not as fast as in New York but it’s going to get up here and so yeah it’s not. Obviously your guess is as good as mine but I think we’re looking at months not weeks
How’s Industry gonna cope up?
It’s a catastrophe. All the stores have closed, the retailers are not selling anything, of course, they have started canceling all the orders because, well we can say it’s a horrible thing we also need to consider that, there’s no point getting goods if you’re not going to sell them and if you don’t have a place to store them you’re not going to send it to the stores, you know you’re not going to sell them now.
One could argue there is no such a season what seasonal product so you could say yeah if I don’t sell it now I can sell it in one month two months from now. It’ll still be okay it’s not a perishable good. It’s really going out of fashion so fast but at the same time if there are no people working in the warehouse then how do you even take the goods in. Although all the retailers, especially in Europe, still have to pay all their employees – not like here what they can do is fire everybody overnight and then possibly rehire them when things they open. So European retailers are all carrying huge costs right now – huge overheads and even without working they still have to pay rent, still have to pay utilities and salaries.
We just read this morning that Primark is it’s refusing to pay millions and millions of dollars of rent and I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Few more will follow you and can imagine when all the big retailers stopped paying rent in those big malls. The other end the really tragic side is along the supply chain because everybody’s now pushing the buck to the next and of course factories are not making anything now, they’re not getting paid for the work they’ve done. And fabric companies can’t count on any new orders going forward so they’re going to going to be stuck for a while and then the yarn and the dyestuff and the finishing product। So the whole chain is affected which is tragic.
Once this is over and people out again do you think there will be some changes in the way people will do the shopping and do you think the habits will change
Well, that’s a really good question because I’ve been thinking about that myself, on one hand, there’s going to be possibly an issue with the availability of goods because if you stop everything it’s not like you can turn the switch on anything stop flowing into your stores right away especially with production being done so far from the market it. It takes time -it takes time – for fabric mills to restart and then they’ll have to ship the fabrics the factories have factories have to make the goods and then here to either Ship or fly them. Now even if you fly them you’re looking at several weeks of the gap between when we reopen and when Goods can start flowing in again, there might be a temporary advantage for the sort of factories that are close to the market, so for the US, I think they will see Mexican factories. For Europe, you’re going to probably see Turkey unless they hit very badly – and maybe parts of Eastern Europe and North Africa those could have a temporary advantage but of course if they don’t have fabric and there’s no advantage.
On the other hand, for people going to stores, that is going to be interesting, because we’re going to have people who will come out after weeks or months and there could be two different reactions.
One is that people will get used to it and we say well maybe I don’t need to buy all the stuff and I don’t need to go to the stores every other day and pick up something that I don’t really need and maybe I have different priorities now in life and I realize there are other things that are more important. Or there could be people that are so desperate to go back to and go crazy again but I think in such a case availability is going to be an issue. But availability is going to be an issue if all the orders going to be canceled, then there is going to be a gap when we re-open.
It’s going to be a really really bad year as we may lose the entire summer season and we really have no idea, I think by winter we might be back to normal but there will still be some issues, because of the forced closure. So I have a feeling that some of the brands and the retailers that were already shaky before, they probably shut down and are not going to be able to truly open and some of the factories that are being hit now by the cancellations will not really have the means to go back to work, so they won’t be able to rehire their workers. Some governments will have to take extraordinary measures to make up for the difference and they will try to prioritize what is best for their countries.
For the retailers who are canceling currently, I thought that instead of canceling if they just offered a kind of a moratorium for two months or three months and then restart the dialogue again, what your thoughts on it?
There’s no easy solution but what is going to be interesting is to see how committed they will still be to the whole sustainability and ethical principle of all these companies. Because one thing is to say that you are you’re committed to doing everything socially right and ethically right and environmentally right things relatively well but when you’re into an emergency like this you tend to forget those things.
You know they were all racing to who was the most a sustainable company out there up to a few weeks ago I want to see how many of those are really really serious about it and how many will not stick to those principles because being sustainable means also taking care of your partners in the supply chain and I know it’s a really really difficult thing to do because at some point you have to decide what you’re going to cut what are you going to sacrifice and an unfortunate human nature is to take care of the ones that are closer to you than the ones who are far away.
Positive takeaways from this situation and your advice?
Well, we have to try and be optimistic and I think this situation can bring out the worst of us the worst in us like people price gouging or taking advantage of this is absolutely unforgivable but there’s also a lot of people who are showing a lot of compassion towards the other. Finally realizing how much incredible work all the other people in the health care world are doing like all the other nurses and doctors and janitors who work in the hospitals.
They live really really hard lives for not such a great financial retribution and they don’t even get a lot of satisfaction most of the time we take those things for granted. Also, people will try to go and find something that is more durable and better quality than disposable and the other thing that is great. I don’t know if you hear the bird thing in nature is blooming right now but with less pollution, my friend in Milano said the air is clean in Milano we can breed finally I saw pictures of the canals in Venice with the water so clean and it’s incredible.
Do join us for our next session with Vasco Pizarro from Portugal in our #Covidtimes talks at DENIMSANDJEANS INSTAGRAM at 4pm Portugal time on 3rd April . Follow our page to join the discussion today.
Stefano Aldighieri , the Ex-Creative Director of 7 For All Mankind , took an informative session on ‘ The Secret Of Success For A Denim Brand ’ at the very first edition of Denimsandjeans India held on September 25-26 at Hotel Lalit , Bangalore . He shared the success stories of three International Brands as case studies and explained what made these brands ‘ A SUCCESSFUL BRAND ‘ . He talked about the ups and downs faced by these brands during their journey and also the key strategies which made them leaders in their respective categories.
He shares his views on three brands..
LEVI STRAUSS & CO
It won’t be an exaggeration if it would be said that – ‘ Levi is the synonym of Blue Jeans’ . Invented in 1873 by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss , this brand has been successfully running till now . At one point of time the company reported a sale of USD 7 Billion however it came down to USD 4 billion recently . Many believes that USD 7 Billion was just a fluke and it was only the monopoly which helped them to reach at this level as there were no one at that time in this market . Blue pants had been invented a way time before 1873 but its LEVI which brought them into main stream fashion .
Another secret of success is – INVENTION . Levi has been constantly engaging their heads into R&D and result of which, the company successfully catered the needs of its customers, the Google- Levis Jacquard Jacket is the latest example of this . Blue Jeans was already in the market before Levis but Levis introduced Rivet and little sturdiness followed by many developments on the fabrics which paved the way for them to become the leader of the market as these inventions add more comforts . The company has always managed to deliver the product according to the needs of its end users and hence succeeded and not only succeeded but also survived and has been surviving for ages .
7 FOR ALL MANKIND
This brand, at one point of time, was the leader in the PREMIUM DENIM CATEGORY and ruled this segment for a decade. Founded in the year 2000 at Los Angeles , this brand has changed the entire narrative of wearing jeans and introduced a premium line of jeans in the market . At that time , the jeans were being sold between the price of range of USD 30-50 but 7 For All Mankind had started to sell their products for more than USD 100 . The price was very close to the price of normal Japanese Denim Brands. The company used the fabrics of Japan and Italy and laundered these in Martelli and delivered an excellent product with fantastic fittings and finishing . The Success mantra of this brand was – F F F : Fit + Fabric + Finish .
This brand successfully created a market for Hi-End fashion for Masses which was also tried before by GAS Jeans however didn’t get success to tap the users of Sophisticate Casuals . This brand never went into the PR and Advertisements to promote its products , It was only the product and word of mouth which spelt and helped to rule this segment.
TUFF GONG CLOTHING
Tuff Gong Clothing , the brand which was inspired from the legendary pop star – BOB MARLEY . The products was sold like hot cake when it launched however it did not go into big league. The success experienced by this brand was because of the product and the uniqueness but the drawback with this brand was , it never went into high volumes . The owners kept his brand as a passion not as a business and hence having all the ingredients of being a successful brand , eventually it failed . The hobby ruled over the zeal of business .
Check out his full video presentation at Denimsandjeans India (Bangalore) below or at youtube.
Stefano Aldighieri is a globally recognized design and creative director with a comprehensive knowledge of the fashion industry. Holding two patents in garment construction, stefano has worked with startups and international organizations in four countries, acting as Creative Director for Hudson Jeans and 7 for all Mankind, CEO of Tuff Gong Clothing, and Design Director/R&D for Levi Strauss & Co.; in the last decade, he has consulted with brands, retailers and manufacturers around the world.
Stefano Aldighieri