Following Women's Curves, Levi's Still Falls Short of the Mark
After exhaustive research (studying 60,000 body scans!) Levi's is rolling with the curves. Curve ID, to be precise, a new fit system for women's jeans that the iconic denim manufacturer says is meant for shape, not size.
Gentlewomen, start your engines -- the new styles debut next week. However, those over size 14 can stay home. Why? Because like so many other brands (looking at you, Marc Jacobs) though Levi's talks a good game about catering to "real women," it's actually ignoring the gals with the curviest figures.
That's an inexcusable oversight for a company that's clearly invested piles of time and beaucoup bucks interviewing thousands of women -- not to mention evaluating all those body scans from 13 different countries. But also because Levi's is overlooking the fact that 60 percent of women shop sizes larger than 12. And for a brand with competition as stiff as a brand new pair of shrink-to-fits, Levi's simply can't afford to miss an opportunity to zip up its revenues. Levi's net income took a hit in 2009 with a 34 percent decrease, on top of 2008's 50 percent decline.
Yes, it IS difficult (and less cost-effective) to do plus sizes. Especially for designers who begin their creations on a much smaller standard. What looks great on a slim-hipped, boyish size 4, doesn't necessarily flatter a voluptuous 14. Likewise, darts, rises, and seams can't just be bumped along inch by inch and still fit correctly. Patterned fabrics and button sizes also need to be adjusted for a proportionally larger woman. And there's more fabric used per piece. But Levi's denim? Not so much.
Levi's is already well-equipped to source more cotton for new, larger jeans. The company's joined forces with other retailers such as Gap (GPS) and IKEA to buy cotton in co-operative bulk, a good pre-emptive strike against the rising cost of the stuff thanks to floods and droughts in cotton-producing parts of the world this year.
Yet Levi's president Robert Hanson told the LA Times, "The fits that we're launching with account for 80 percent of the women's body shapes in the world," and added plans to debut a fourth "extreme curve" at the end of the year. "Then we'll have 96 percent of women covered."
Ask any woman how she feels about jeans and she'll probably tell you she could live in them. But ask her to shop for jeans and she'll probably look like you've just asked if she'd like a Pap smear or if she'd mind trying on a bikini under fluorescent lights while in the throes of PMS. If Levi's was as committed to capitalizing on the legions of women longing for jeans that fit and flatter as it is to kowtowing to Chinese guys, the company would be ringing in profits like it's 1997.
So while I applaud Levi's for getting off its ass after 75 years of peddling the same straight legged trou to round-hipped women, I'm puzzled. Why be satisfied with 96 percent when you have the means and the technology to cash in on 100 percent of the world's derrieres?
Image via Levi's
Related:
- Levi's Gets Litigious
- Levi's Aims to Cover the World's Butts in Denim
- China As #2, American Brands Scurry to Get First Dibs