Get the scoop on what's happening with levi's ® right here.
/ Interview with Matt McGivern, Australia Senior Product Manager
Just as Kleenex is synonymous for tissues, Levi's® is now interchangeable for jeans. They were the original manufacturer of our favourite pants all the way back in 1873, a time when horse power referred to bovines and not bogans, and 3D TV was but a blip on the non existent radar. Think of them as your great great grandfather - the cool type that let you try their chewing tobacco and taught you how to cuss.
As the granddaddy of denim, they are the ones that you should be taking your advice from. Matt McGivern, the Senior Product Manager for Australian menswear, should know: he's been working with Levi's® for over a decade, following the brand everywhere from Belgium to San Francisco. He has worked with the "bling" of Italy and Spain and the "clean-cut classics" of Scandinavia, and is now finding Australia's own prevailing trends.
"I'd say that globally, people are reverting back to classic brands, and there's this whole 'nostalgia purchasing' going on," says Matt. "It's going a little bit retro: Ray-Bans are coming back, Converse, brogue shoes..." What once was old is new again. Wouldn't you prefer to be driving a Chevrolet over your beaten up Ford?
While the GFC may incite fear into most people's knobbly denim knees, it has actually had a big influence on jeans trends. "People are going back to the tried and trusted brands as they want a bit of authenticity," he explains, "and quality for the money that they're spending.... It's tapping into the trend and making people aware that we are the original jeans brand."
Enter Levi's®.
As the original jeans company, Levi's® know denim better than any other label. With nearly 150 years of experience quite literally under their belts, they have the art of the jean down to a fine stitched form.
"We don't always have to reinvent the wheel," Matt jokes. "If you look at a 568 skinny today [now the prevailing most popular cut], the same look and shape is still based off the original 501 pattern. You've got the accurate stitch on the back pockets; you've got the leather patch still... There's so little to differentiate between the two aside from the fit."
There is no doubt that skinny jeans are the skinny on fashion at the moment, and will continue to be this summer. Perhaps not surprisingly, white-hot Australia is the leader in these fashion stakes, setting the benchmark for stovepipe wears internationally.
"When I first came over here, I was pretty shocked with the number of people wearing skinny jeans. The last market that I worked in was Scandinavia and the Benelux region, and that was probably the skinniest in Europe, but..." Matt laughs. "Especially being in Melbourne, it's so skinny here that it's unbelievable. I've never witnessed anything like it.
"[The 568] was the skinniest jean that we did in the world, and it came out of Australia. And now last year, we added a new one called the 595 which is even skinnier again! Australia is at the forefront of Levi's® skinny-fashion."
Although it may seem like a sudden jump, the (low)rise of the skinny jean has been creeping up from under us for decades. Originating with the Dog Town and Z-Boy skaters who tapered their jeans so they wouldn't get caught up in their boards, the trend has now been adopted by all.
"So whether it has come from the rock stars and has gone to the skaters, or come from the skaters and gone to the hipsters, I'm not sure exactly. But there definitely is a global trend," Matt explains.
From the skaters to the rockers to the hipsters to your hip pocket, you would think it's hard to predict what will be next. With the cyclic nature of denim trends (Matt points out the difficult double-denim comeback, which when done incorrectly "can give you the impression that it's all very Beverly Hills 90210"), is it Hammer time once more?
Matt laughs. "There has been talk about the heritage boot cut thing coming back, not the flower-power flair kind of thing. I don't think that we're necessarily ready for that one."
Instead, subtle volume that won't make you look like a disused parachute is coming back for the warmer months. The 'carrot top' look - where the jeans are tapered at the ankle, but have more material at the hips - was picked up off the street a few years ago. "That's another beautiful thing - where we get a lot of our fit inspiration from: Levi's® doesn't really look at catwalks in terms of what's up-and-coming in denim. It's really on a street level."
As part of his job, Matt 'unfortunately' has to spend a lot of time looking at peoples' bums on the street, "which wasn't great for my previous relationship, because I was doing the girls' range as well. So I always had a really good excuse!
"You can't help it. It's a massive part of my life. Whenever you're walking around the street, something catches your eye, something you haven't seen before. And then you're immediately drawn to looking at someone's arse."
Bring on the summer shorts, eh? For Matt, his collection of 80 pairs of jeans is quite modest. Looking through his back catalogue of 1960s 505s is like documentation in denim: just the way it should be from the casual wearers to the aficionados. "Everyone has a story about their favourite pair of jeans. And that's something that you can't manufacture."
However, Levi's® will get you halfway there. They create a jeans experience that is authentic. Everything from the modern versions of classic cuts to the washes make it look like you've done it yourself. "[A pair of Levi's®] should look like it has been worn in by someone. It should look like your favourite pair of jeans... So with all of our washings, we try to give it a really nice soft hand feel," gushes Matt.
"We do a lot of our finishes by hand. Other brands, well, you can tell who the other brands our that use lasers and it never looks that natural... When they have rips and holes in them, they should look like you've almost done it yourself. "
You can almost get a mental image of the Levi's® 'wear-in-ers'. They would be a bunch of guys sitting around on the couch, eating Doritos, moshing, spilling beers and sliding through the mud at music festivals... It would be an awesome job - and one that you get to have every time you pull on a new pair of Levi's®. Make a classic your own.
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Levi's® head of design, Matt McGivern
Interview with Matt McGivern, Australia Senior Product Manager Just as Kleenex is synonymous for tissues, Levi's® is now interchangeable for jeans. They were the original manufacturer of our favourite pants all the way back in 1873, a time when horse power referred to bovines and not bogans, and 3D TV was but a blip on the non existent radar. Think of them as your great great grandfather - the cool type that let you try their chewing tobacco and taught you how to cuss.
As the granddaddy of denim, they are the ones that you should be taking your advice from. Matt McGivern, the Senior Product Manager for Australian menswear, should know: he's been working with Levi's® for over a decade, following the brand everywhere from Belgium to San Francisco. He has worked with the "bling" of Italy and Spain and the "clean-cut classics" of Scandinavia, and is now finding Australia's own prevailing trends.
"I'd say that globally, people are reverting back to classic brands, and there's this whole 'nostalgia purchasing' going on," says Matt. "It's going a little bit retro: Ray-Bans are coming back, Converse, brogue shoes..." What once was old is new again. Wouldn't you prefer to be driving a Chevrolet over your beaten up Ford?
While the GFC may incite fear into most people's knobbly denim knees, it has actually had a big influence on jeans trends. "People are going back to the tried and trusted brands as they want a bit of authenticity," he explains, "and quality for the money that they're spending.... It's tapping into the trend and making people aware that we are the original jeans brand."
Enter Levi's®.
As the original jeans company, Levi's® know denim better than any other label. With nearly 150 years of experience quite literally under their belts, they have the art of the jean down to a fine stitched form.
"We don't always have to reinvent the wheel," Matt jokes. "If you look at a 568 skinny today [now the prevailing most popular cut], the same look and shape is still based off the original 501 pattern. You've got the accurate stitch on the back pockets; you've got the leather patch still... There's so little to differentiate between the two aside from the fit."
There is no doubt that skinny jeans are the skinny on fashion at the moment, and will continue to be this summer. Perhaps not surprisingly, white-hot Australia is the leader in these fashion stakes, setting the benchmark for stovepipe wears internationally.
"When I first came over here, I was pretty shocked with the number of people wearing skinny jeans. The last market that I worked in was Scandinavia and the Benelux region, and that was probably the skinniest in Europe, but..." Matt laughs. "Especially being in Melbourne, it's so skinny here that it's unbelievable. I've never witnessed anything like it.
"[The 568] was the skinniest jean that we did in the world, and it came out of Australia. And now last year, we added a new one called the 595 which is even skinnier again! Australia is at the forefront of Levi's® skinny-fashion."
Although it may seem like a sudden jump, the (low)rise of the skinny jean has been creeping up from under us for decades. Originating with the Dog Town and Z-Boy skaters who tapered their jeans so they wouldn't get caught up in their boards, the trend has now been adopted by all.
"So whether it has come from the rock stars and has gone to the skaters, or come from the skaters and gone to the hipsters, I'm not sure exactly. But there definitely is a global trend," Matt explains.
From the skaters to the rockers to the hipsters to your hip pocket, you would think it's hard to predict what will be next. With the cyclic nature of denim trends (Matt points out the difficult double-denim comeback, which when done incorrectly "can give you the impression that it's all very Beverly Hills 90210"), is it Hammer time once more?
Matt laughs. "There has been talk about the heritage boot cut thing coming back, not the flower-power flair kind of thing. I don't think that we're necessarily ready for that one."
Instead, subtle volume that won't make you look like a disused parachute is coming back for the warmer months. The 'carrot top' look - where the jeans are tapered at the ankle, but have more material at the hips - was picked up off the street a few years ago. "That's another beautiful thing - where we get a lot of our fit inspiration from: Levi's® doesn't really look at catwalks in terms of what's up-and-coming in denim. It's really on a street level."
As part of his job, Matt 'unfortunately' has to spend a lot of time looking at peoples' bums on the street, "which wasn't great for my previous relationship, because I was doing the girls' range as well. So I always had a really good excuse!
"You can't help it. It's a massive part of my life. Whenever you're walking around the street, something catches your eye, something you haven't seen before. And then you're immediately drawn to looking at someone's arse."
Bring on the summer shorts, eh? For Matt, his collection of 80 pairs of jeans is quite modest. Looking through his back catalogue of 1960s 505s is like documentation in denim: just the way it should be from the casual wearers to the aficionados. "Everyone has a story about their favourite pair of jeans. And that's something that you can't manufacture."
However, Levi's® will get you halfway there. They create a jeans experience that is authentic. Everything from the modern versions of classic cuts to the washes make it look like you've done it yourself. "[A pair of Levi's®] should look like it has been worn in by someone. It should look like your favourite pair of jeans... So with all of our washings, we try to give it a really nice soft hand feel," gushes Matt.
"We do a lot of our finishes by hand. Other brands, well, you can tell who the other brands our that use lasers and it never looks that natural... When they have rips and holes in them, they should look like you've almost done it yourself. "
You can almost get a mental image of the Levi's® 'wear-in-ers'. They would be a bunch of guys sitting around on the couch, eating Doritos, moshing, spilling beers and sliding through the mud at music festivals... It would be an awesome job - and one that you get to have every time you pull on a new pair of Levi's®. Make a classic your own.
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