Deep Pockets: MAGIC retailers see no problem charging $600 for jeans

Kirk Baird

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005 | 8:20 a.m.

There's an interesting marketing question confronting designers of premium-priced denim.

How much are consumers willing to spend for a pair of jeans?

$50? $75? $100?

So far the answer is all the above and more.

Much more.

How about $600 for a pair of Tag Jeans, distressed and stretched for the perfect fit and shimmering with Swarovski crystals?

"You think of jeans as being very plain," said Tess Donaldson, sales representative for Tag Jeans. "But they do many things now they've never done before. Now that they're doing that, you can express yourself through your jeans."

Tag Jeans is one of thousands of clothing companies with booths at the Men's Apparel Guild in California (MAGIC), the four-day biannual fashion expo that runs through Thursday at Las Vegas Convention Center.

Among the biggest trends at this MAGIC expo is the continuing growth of the premium denim market.

While new designers look to cash in on the denim craze with their own lines of premium jeans, established brands such as Seven7, Hollister and Lucky continue to enjoy stellar sales. Meanwhile, blue-jean veterans such as Levi and Wrangler are rumored to be joining the craze with premium lines of their own.

"Premium denim, premium jeans is one of the hottest things around," said Kate Brubaker, a spokeswoman for designer jeans-maker Blue Cult. "There's a new demin brand popping up every week.

"It's gotten crazy."

Fueling the demand is the sudden versatility of the century old-plus blue jean.

Once an American symbol of casual comfort, designers are discovering ways of dressing up a way of dressing down.

A typical pair of premium-priced jeans, for example, may feature crystals, studs and elaborate stitching. Throw on a sportcoat and the jeans are fashionable enough to wear to a party or trendy restaurant. With a T-shirt, though, the jeans are still casual enough for the relaxed look.

Of course, as designers dress up the denim, the prices go up accordingly.

A typical price range for premium jeans ranges from $75 to $300, depending on the manufacturing work involved, such as stitching details and softening the fabric by hand with sandpaper.

"There's a large amount of labor that goes into them," Brubaker said. "That's why they're so expensive."

Premium jeans are also made with expensive denim that's more durable than the fabric used in mass-produced jeans.

"You buy three pairs of Gap jeans and they'll last two to three years," Brubaker said. "Blue Cult jeans will last six to seven years.

"We always say, they won't fail you."

But premium denim doesn't have to come with a premium price.

While the average cost for a pair of premium jeans is around $150, YMI Jeanswear International offers a selection of jeans with a price range of $38-$64. The jeans feature blanket stitching for added detail, patch-pocket detail and "destruction," where the fabric has been intentionally torn.

"Some of the same things offered in a premium contemporary jean we're offering for much less," said Dina De Fazio, director of marketing for YMI. "We're that alternative jean for under $100."

Even at lower prices, premium denim isn't for everyone. Women's sizes range from 0-12, while men's sizes run from 28-42.

Although the men's sizes fit a fairly wide range, the women's size group doesn't even include the national size average, 14, according to the Global Purchasing Group, a clothing buyer for 100 independent specialty stores nationwide.

"There's a void in that market for having high-quality fashion jeans in plus sizes," Mitchell Quaranta, president of See Thru Soul jeans, acknowledges. "We've talked about" having a plus-size line.

Other designers, while not addressing the plus-size market, at least assent that even in the smaller size range, not all women are made the same.

"We have curvier jeans. We don't want to fit on a model-thin girl. That's not mass market," Brubaker said. "We want to fit on a true woman's body."

The fact the premium denim market isn't made for everyone, though, has created a feeling of exclusivity that fuels consumer demand for the product, designers say.

Premium denim designers also benefit when a popular actress or performer is photographed wearing a pair of their jeans.

Gwyneth Paltrow, for example, was photographed wearing a pair of Blue Cult jeans. The paparazzi pictures made fashion magazines take notice of Blue Cult and want to include the label in their photo spreads. The added exposure of the premium denim brand in national magazines, in turn, created a larger brand awareness, fueling sales.

Blue Cult even named the jeans "The Gwyneth" after the actress.

It also has jeans named for Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Kate Hudson, all of whom have been photographed wearing Blue Cult jeans.

"A lot of business is word-of-mouth and celebrity-based," Brubaker said.

Other up-and-coming brands, such as See Thru Soul and YMI, prefer the more traditional methods of marketing, such as billboards and magazine ads, while Tag Jeans relies on media coverage to create the necessary "prestige" factor to drive sales of their jeans.

And prestige, ultimately, is what sells anything premium priced.

"It's the same thing with a Rolex," Donaldson said. "You don't wear a Rolex to tell time. You wear a Rolex to show people you're wearing a Rolex."