Rich & Skinny Jeans

The fashion world is all about staying on trend but more recently these trends have been economic. As a result, denim designers have been forced to take this into consideration order to keep afloat. However, this is a good thing, as now many of these brands are more accessible to the general public, such as William Rast.

As the designers explain, “At the core, we are a denim company and while we do have other products that fit into the denim lifestyle, we felt that with our denim business, we needed a new strategy,” Dyne said. “We needed a strategy to open the brand up to wider distribution channels both domestically and internationally.” The result of this mindset has been the division of the line into three different price tiers, $165-$175, $185-195, and $195 and up. Each price tier will encapsulate the same branding essentials, however moving up in tiers creates more options as far as cut and wash.

William Rast isn’t the only brand bringing down prices, Michael Glasser, co-founder of SFAM and Citizens, who is currently at Rich and Skinny stated, “What we realized is that we had to do something to bring down our prices, all while making our product even more meaningful,” Glasser said. As a result, Rich and Skinny launched their basics line that had a lower price point, of $145, but still maintained the quality of the brand. However, trends still prove to be a strong selling point, as Glassernotes that the boyfriend style jean is still a strong seller, despite the economy.

Not only are changes occurring with the brand but the also in in the markets, as many retailers are going abroad. For example, SFAM has launched many specialty stores, focusing on Asian markets. The brand still maintains it’s exclusivity, by its release of the Premier 7 collection, which only appears at certain stores.

While some labels are focusing on expanding, others are simplifying. For example, as Chip & Pepper executive, Chip explains, “We’ve scaled back the line to make it very focused and we’ve edited it down to about only 25 sku’s (Styles). Each pair of our jeans has tremendous value, and while we are working on ways to lower our prices, we refuse to step outside of what we have built. We will always manufacture here in the U.S. and will always be about quality.”

Regardless of their approach to sustaining themselves, denim still proves to be going strong and will surely stand the test of time.

Read the rest of the article at WWD.com

Images from Style.com