Category: Barney’s New York
How Can Jeans Cost $300?
| July 8, 2011 | Filled under Barney's New York, Calvin Klein Jeans, Cone Denim, Gloria Vanderbilt, IndiDenim, JBrand, Levi Strauss, Made to Measure Jeans, Make Your Own Jeans, True Religion |
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I work in an industry that only 1% of the population is addicted to… but we will always spend $300.00 on a pair of jeans that turn us on!
Check out this article Written By: Christina Binkley at christina.binkley@wsj.com
Shoppers Shell Out More for Designer Denim, Lured by Signature Details, ‘Made in America
It is an enduring mystery to anyone reared on $50 Levi’s: How can a pair of jeans cost as much as the Phantom, the new look from True Religion that will be priced as high as $375?
The answer can be found here in Los Angeles, in the global capital of so-called premium denim—one of the few areas of fashion that remains largely American-made. An industrial zone here near the city’s center is home to True Religion, J Brand, Seven For All Mankind and other pricey denim brands that have elevated what was once workman’s togs to a luxury industry all its own. This is a rarefied segment of the denim business. Americans bought $13.8 billion of men’s and women’s jeans in the year ended April 30, according to market-research firm NPD Group. But only about 1% of jeans sold in the U.S. over that year cost more than $50.
Graphic: Fashion Math
See how the production costs add up for a pair of True Religion jeans.
The prices of “premium” jeans—industry jargon for luxury-priced denim—appear to be edging slightly upward after a downturn following the financial crisis. Right now, J Brand’s Maria women’s jeans can sell for $226. Men’s Aidan jeans from Seven For All Mankind cost $225. Prices for Gucci jeans range from $495 to $665. Premium jeans are made in the U.S., which is a big part of their allure. Gloria Vanderbilt and Calvin Klein introduced the world to so-called designer jeans decades ago, and what began as a relatively small trend endured. Jeans are worn everywhere from the office to the opera these days. But there is a less-than-subtle caste system for denim: A pair of “Sevens,” as some call jeans from Seven For All Mankind, conveys a statement about one’s fashion savoir faire (and income) that less expensive brands don’t. It costs about $50 to make a pair of Super T jeans, True Religion’s best-selling style with oversized white stitching, estimates founder, chairman and chief executive, Jeff Lubell. The wholesale price is $152, he says, and the average retail price is $335. Of course, plenty of these jeans sell at substantially less than full price. F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas.
True Religion’s top-selling jeans, the Super T, cost about $50 to make and sell wholesale to retailers for $152 a pair. The average price in stores is $335. They feature white stitching on the back pocket and around the waistband.
Hunting for The Perfect Pair of Jeans can be an arduous challenge. With a few clicks, WSJ reporter Alina Dizik tries online made-to-measure jean shopping via sites IndiDenim, Thiumbler and MakeYourOwnJeans.
The Phantom was first shown to retailers in January, and True Religion is building its fall marketing campaign around the jean. With less prominent logos and detailing, it resonates with the current antilogo trend in fashion, but its details are designed to appeal to real “jeaners,” as Mr. Lubell refers to premium-denim lovers. It has a small American flag hand-embroidered on the waistband. A subtle logo on the pocket is like a ghost, or phantom, of the brassy original logo. ”The Phantom is my Ferrari 458 Italia,” says Mr. Lubell. “It’s the newest, hottest baby of mine.” As with all fashion, a big part of the price of luxury denim is in the multiple profit margins taken at each level of production. Most any piece of clothing contains parts and services from potentially dozens of providers: from fabric and button makers, to designers and seamstresses, and wholesalers and sales agents. After all this, designers and retailers say the typical retail markup on all fashion items, including jeans, ranges from 2.2 to 2.6 times cost.
The hang tag costs 18 cents.
In the luxury business, those mark-ups cover huge marketing budgets (someone has to pay for giant billboards and ads in fashion magazines) as well as the costs of running stores, headquarters, shipping, and other overhead. The profit margins on premium jeans can be substantial. Mr. Geliebter says his gross profit margin for private-label jeans, which he makes for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Sears Holdings Corp. and other retailers, are less than 20%, whereas the margins for his own premium lines are 40%-to-50%.
It seemed a few years ago that the high end of the denim business was doomed, with the financial crisis killing many consumers’ appetites for expensive jeans. Premium-denim makers cut back on styling and details, and cut prices in many cases to under $200. Manufacturers hit a price floor at around $150, mainly because premium denim is manufactured primarily in the U.S., which can’t compete China and other nations with low labor costs. Beyond the rise, or waistband height, and leg silhouette—bootleg, skinny, or cigarette—the details that make jeans brands stand out are often on the pockets. J Brand’s pockets are unadorned, while True Religion is known for its highly stylized pockets with swirly embroidery. Jeans brands also try to stand out from season to season by using patented materials, such as rivets and stitching, and by using special washes and distressing methods. These might involve dying, pressing, and even using sandpaper and drills on the raw jeans. These methods can be particularly expensive when done in the U.S., where factories must meet more stringent environmental and labor standards than in many low-cost nations. Most premium jeans’ cotton denim fabric comes from the primary maker of high-end denim fabric used in the U.S. and Europe: Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Denim, a unit of the International Textile Group. There, in a plant known as White Oak, shuttle looms dating from the 1950s weave the denim fabric that winds up in many premium denim brands, including J Brand. The looms are older, narrower, and slower than highly efficient modern looms, but they weave fabric with slight irregularities known as slubs, which impart a texture and character that modern looms lack. Delores Sides, a spokeswoman for Cone Denim, says most of the weavers employed there have at least 20 years of experience, and one woman has being working at the mill for 55 years. They are employed full time and are paid benefits such as health care, she says.
True Religion’s Super T jeans
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Styling by Anne Cardenas
The Cone fabrics are shipped by truck or train to Los Angeles, where denim brands cut and sew them to their designs. Each part and bit of labor may ultimately be marked up five times or more before the pants reach retail stores. So the $23.30 spent for a Los Angeles-based seamstress to sew a pair of Super Ts will cost the consumer more than $100 at full price. Other notable costs include roughly $10 worth of fabric (1.8 yards a pair, on average), 44 cents for pocket linings, 37 cents for a zipper, and $2 for the embroidery on a back pocket. Washes for coloring and fading may be done in Los Angeles or, sometimes, at mills in Mexico.
To be produced domestically, jeans have to be priced at “$200-plus,” says Shelda Hartwell-Hale, a vice president at Directives West, an L.A.-based division of fashion consulting firm Doneger Group. Jeans makers say that manufacturing in the U.S., in addition to appealing to consumers, allows them to move quickly. When Jeff Rudes, founder and chief executive of J Brand, saw designer Jil Sander’s electric colors in New York’s Jeffrey boutique earlier this year, he asked his designers to come up with a hot pink and an emerald green color for jeans. Five days later, the first, small run of jeans were shipping into Barneys New York. Mr. Rudes says it typically takes his company six to eight weeks to make a pair of jeans in the U.S., compared with three to six months in China. True Religion is one of the industry’s giants, making 4 million units of clothing a year. He estimates that his $300 jeans could sell for $40 if he manufactured in China. Still, Mr. Lubell has caved when it comes to jackets, the cutting and styling of which is more complex than pants. He makes them in Mexico, where costs are higher than in Asia, but less than in the U.S. The jackets retail for about $375. “If I made them here,” he says, “they would be about $600.”
Does Gap have what it takes?
| August 16, 2010 | Filled under 55DSL, 7 for all Mankind, Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostal, American Eagle, Barney's New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Citizen's, GAP Jeans, GILT, Harrods, Hudson Jeans, JCrew, Lucky, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Paige Premium Denim, Rich & Skinny,, Rock & Republic, Ruelala, Saks 5th Avenue, True Religion, William Rast |
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Good morning denim lovers, it is nearly 3am and I have written you a novel. David Moin wrote an article in this weeks WWD; about “Gap Gearing Up Denim” that caught my attention. Gap…denim… really; we are going to do this AGAIN? I am not convinced that Gap Inc. knows how to communicate their brand, differentiate their store experience or have a “real” relationship with their customer… who are they? J crew knows who they are and who their client is…Does gap have the right crew to pull off the gap brand being cool and return to be a closet staple like it was in the 90′s?
Personally, I am going direct here- let’s ask the questions; I have asked several kids, friends and even my own clients {what do you think about GAP} Some comments I may be playing devils advocate, than again, some may be right inline with my personal belief that fact is there are questions that need to be answered and considered. Enjoy….
What kind of shopping destination is Gap and would “you” ever go back?
The sales we saw last year in the 2009 during the retail meltdown gave everyone a chance to have designer goods for garage sale prices. Do you really want to give back the labels you love or have you begun a small, planned collection of love-able items in your closet…the yearly fashion bucket list I call it… I’ve got one! You just may haven’t actually wrote yours down. Go get a notepad…
Are people being “YOU” willing to pay full retail for Gap jeans @$59.50-$70.00 rather than hitting the killer sales at your favorite specialty store or much less skip the opportunity at Nordstrom Rack to score a pair of $200.00 designer jeans for sixty-five bucks? Who is the Gap customer; I don’t believe they know who their customer is nevertheless who to market to!
Another favorite Quote: “Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance” unknown
I am gonna break it down in “coffee talk”…quick!
Elementary School: Yes! Grade school kids are wearing designer jeans…It is common for kids to be rewarded with “socially coveted cloth” designer jeans for finishing their monthly book reading list. If you were to walk into an elementary school you would see, P.S by Areopostal ($29.50), abercrombie Kids ($32.00), and probably some Levi’s, a few randoms but that’s parents… not the kids! If you asked the kid, they would tell you what they like {they already know}. They might just be waiting for their older sister’s hand me downs. FYI:Older sister is cool- she’s wearing the cool jeans that she earns for doing chores and having good grades. If you ask the parents-it’s about money- but Gap jeans aren’t going to be cheap they are comparable. Every company should want to introduce their product and brand to a potential customer as soon as possible in order to develop brand loyalty and allow the brand to become part of the consumer’s identity. “lifestyle branding is beautiful” you’ve seen it at work; its like shaking Tinkerbell’s fairy dust on each person that walks in your store- a little magic”. How early….look at Baby designer jeans- Joe’s, Seven 4 all Mankind, True Religion, Levi’s Vintage, Diesel, little Marc Jacobs… heck- we’ve got DENIM Huggies!
Middle School:
6th graders- the babies on campus again; luckily they are starting a new team sport to help adjust and make some new friends. They are beginning to make decisions based on their ideal and start developing a personal identity and identify with brands, groups, and are striving for social acceptance. They most likely just got their first magazine subscription. Gap…where are you spending your advertising dollars? I can’t see Gap jeans being hotter than Abercrombie & Fitch in middle school; because the high school kids are wearing them and working in the stores-they’re “cool” kids. It doesn’t take rocket science to know middle schooler’s look up to older siblings, high school kids, and celebrities. Just like the incoming freshman want the designer jeans that are on the 11 and 12th graders… POCKET ENVY! The lifestyle branding VALUE kids get to feel accepted and confident is priceless. Have you been back there lately…it’s not pretty! No matter how much you develop a child skills, talents and value system, acceptance or lack there of at such a young age makes a difference in their confidence and motivation with their endeavor.
Alright, your 6,7,8 grader DOES NOT GO SHOPPING WITH THEIR PARENTS! The mall is like a big FREE babysitter! They even have security; “let’s call it multi-tasking for the mums and the “social time” for the kids. This is when shopping becomes a “hobby” or a way to “pass” the time. Going to the mall is about all they can do when they are not playing sports or doing homework. Kids are at the mall…shopping with their friends, hanging out and spending their parents money WITHOUT THEM. Is it a cool experience to go in to Gap? ya.. no. Turn the music up- incorporate a video arcade… dude- something to get these kids excited about being a part of your BRAND! Kids are amazing… I truly want like…a million! They are blank canvases just waiting for a killer sales associate to walk up and play dress up, show them how great they look in such in such brand of clothing and teach them a little bit of style. But instead… no one pays attention to the kids in the store… do they? Well, I do! I have had an entire 6th grade cheerleading squad come down to my store and do a little cheer ’cause they all shop with me. I am the ultimate big sister and I will adopt anyone that needs one. I think it is the coolest thing ever to have someone look up to you and a beautiful responsibility to show them how special they are; inspire them to want to do great things! p.s. I am not talking about dressing up little girls in mini denim skirts and ruffles. I am talking about taking an eleven year old that is shy or prissy and making her confident enough to rock the boys camo cargo shorts, a pink tank top, hoodie, ripped up denim jacket and flip flops – when all the other girls are wearing the denim mini skirts, make-up and tight tee-shirts “little kid sexy”. Which little girl is going to be stronger, self-confident, and find her own personal style and identity first?
Kids are also wearing at this point: Hollister, A&F, 55DSL, Lucky, and American Eagle, and breaking in to designer jeans like Seven 4 all mankind. Rock & Republic killed kids with POCKET ENVY; everyone learned about designer denim real quick!
Oh.. the dreaded HIGH SCHOOL: If you are sending your child out to war their freshman year without the damn pocket just get them a pair so they don’t have to deal with it! “go to the mattresses” Kids can be VERY cruel! So, give-in for them, just one pair that’s all it takes to be “accepted” into the club or should I say avoid being “rejected” from the clicks. At least they have 4 years to decide if they want to be friends with any of the other kids rather than it not being an option. First impressions go both ways! I would LOVE a brand to emphasize individuality and “secret” of the brand. Levi has remained true to the All-American lifestyle…so, far as Levi’s are neither coveted nor shunned with the youth age group.
We are in high school now and are parents may or may not wear designer denim but… I bet they do, because it took over the WORLD! If mom does, then daughter is stealing them or begging for more! Dad is going to buy them for his son-cake!
So, what is paired with every hoodie and henley in the halls… jeans! But, again are they gap jeans? Would they become gap jeans? Levis are just American- blank-accepted- and less expensive than the new gap jeans.
COLLEGE: If you didn’t get the magical cloth in high school well- YOU ARE GETTING SENT OFF TO COLLEGE WITH THEM! Why? because this kid is fed up with NOT having them in high school- sick of it! Are incoming freshman rushing in Gap jeans? When you have 7 days to show who you are and that you belong to a particular “social” group? NO! Hudson, Citizen’s, Rich n’ Skinny, Rock & Republic.. oh yea! Need a refresher from your SAT’s… Attorney is to suit as College student is to jeans; it’s a uniform people. The only difference is that these uniforms also serve as status symbols… I am not even going to start on Handbags!
COLLEGE: This is where your consumer learns about personal services available at Barney’s, Neiman Marcus, Forum Stores, SAKS 5th Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Harrods, “some” Nordstrom stores and the INTERNET groups like GILT and Ruelala. How’s your loyalty right now… gap- do you have any interactive college apps?
Now, all these kids are good kids, honor roll, driven, are/have great friends, confident, ambitious (they are going to change the world you know), and family oriented. But, our youth is our time to experiment, express, and decide who we are and mold who we are going to be- Seize the day! Fashion is the way we decide how we are going to start our future! You’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it twice…”everyone is in such a hurry to grow up”… are you still wearing children’s clothing?
So, you’re average college student buys: A&F, Hollister, AE, Levis, Seven 4 all mankind, William Rast, Urban Outfitters, Rock n’ Republic, XXI, Hudson…and hits up Nordstrom Rack FIRST! Gap— who is going to gap… there is no music, no service, no prints, “overpriced” basics and …no memorable lifestyle shopping experience? Personally, I am busy- and I don’t have time to go shopping if it is not going to be an EVENT or BLISS!
Post college: you’re BROKE! Thank god you stocked up on all your denim when you were in college… you’re starving now so, they all fit again! However, that first tax return they get for actually working an entire year is sooo… going to buy the newest hottest jeans in February! Although, graduation is only 5 months away from Christmas!
Thus far…baby gap is pretty strong, Toddler gap sizes definitely do-able, teen and young adult- NEEDS SOME WORK!
Addicted to denim... that’s us these days, always on to the next. The best, perfect pocket placement in a world consumed by pocket envy… or so, far beyond that it is just all about the butt! There’s the question [ding, ding, ding, ding, ding] Does gap have a better denim butt then Paige Premium Denim?
{to be continued}…
