Blue-Jean Believers
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

They have always been around, but now they’re more fashionable than ever. In the past five years, jeans have gone from being everyday basics to status symbols. “Denim is the one item that women tend to buy compulsively,” said Blake Matthews, one of the top salesmen at Barneys Co-Op. “Some customers come in every couple of weeks to get more jeans. They seem to always be searching for the perfect pair.”
It’s no mystery why we keep such a frantic shopping schedule. Denim trends have been changing at a breakneck speed. In the past few seasons, we have seen stretch jeans, baggy jeans, super-low jeans, trouser-cut jeans, distressed jeans, and embroidered jeans go in and out of fashion in a matter of months. You hardly have time to squeeze into the latest model before it appears old again. However, it seems we can finally catch our breath. This season, a slew of new denim lines based on such enduring values as quality and cut have been launched.
Earnest Sewn jeans, which debuted last month, are not about the latest fit or pocket seams. “There’s so much meaningless denim out there,” said Earnest Sewn design er and founder Scott Morrison. “We wanted to put out a product that had a story to tell.” As a teller of denim stories, Mr. Morrison is better qualified than most. With a past as the cofounder and lead designer of blockbuster brand Paper Denim & Cloth, he has a solid understanding of the premium denim industry. But what sets Mr. Morrison apart is his intense passion for quality and workmanship. Setting out to create jeans that had a sense of handicraft and personal pride, Mr. Morrison and his friends and co-founders Lori Jacobs and Eleanor Lembo studied the original denim-making of the late 1800s. They found inspiration in old-fashioned techniques and adapted them to modern production standards.
Rather than coming off a traditional assembly line of many workers completing small parts of the overall product, Earnest Sewn jeans are hand-sanded and stitched by one person, who finishes off each pair by signing the label. The result is a beautiful, vintage-looking texture with personal touches such as slightly uneven seams. The collection is limited to a handful of straightforward but perfectly tailored styles such as straight leg and boot cut. The jeans sell at Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, and Fred Segal for $180 to $200.
“The name of our line is very important to us,” said Solomon Smeke, president of Salt Works jeans. “Salt is an essential element with a lot of history. It’s clean and pure, which is what we aspire our product to be.”
Originally an owner of a denim mill in Mexico City, Mr. Smeke moved to New York City three years ago. Salt Works was born earlier this year, when Mr Smeke teamed up with a few designers from Levi’s headquarters in San Francisco. “We started out really small,” he explained, “because we wanted to test the market. We had no idea the brand would become such a success.” It seems there was an almost insatiable need for high-quality denim (the fabric is imported from Italy and Japan) with a no-nonsense purpose: making women look good. The first shipment of the flattering and simple jeans ($121 to $125) sold out at Henri Bendel, Scoop, and Intermix immediately.
The three basic Salt fits are engineered to enhance all female body types. How is that possible? “It’s really, really hard work,” Mr. Smeke conceded, “a matter of tweaking tiny inches that you can’t see, only feel. As soon as you put Salt jeans on you’ll notice that they make you feel sexy and comfortable.”
Another label that aspires to solve the riddle of “one fit flatters all” is denim success story Notify, whose jeans retail for $200 to $300 at Jeffrey and Barneys New York. The stylish label is best known for its hand-painted detailing and fashionable novelty cuts, such as the slouchy drawstring model in a lightweight twill (a Gwen Stefani favorite). But the big news is that designer Maurice Ohayon – previously of 7 For All Mankind – has come up with a new, radical sizing system that just might save us a lot of agonizing time in the dressing room. Come spring, Notify will introduce an A, B, C, D size range – think bra-cup sizes, except in this case, it’s the posterior being measured – along with the standard hip inch measurements, to fit different figures.
Meanwhile, mega-label 7 For All Mankind has found that longevity relies on consistency. The brand has stuck to the basic silhouette of low-cut, fitted, five-pocket jeans ($150 to $170) that it launched four years ago. That’s not to say that a pair of 7s from 2000 look the same as a pair from their new fall line, however. The label has quietly developed signature touches such as colorful washes and authentic looking distressed details like tears and creases.
But the smash hit of the year occurred when creative director Tim Kaeding decided to jazz up the holiday collection with Swarovski crystals outlining the back pocket logo. The first shipment of the limited-edition line ($198 to $215), embellished with exclusive multi-colored crystals, launched at Barneys Co-Op in mid-September and became an instant obsession for denim addicts all over the country.
“In four weeks we sold around 1,100 pairs,” said a spokesperson for 7. “The response has been phenomenal. There are Internet chat rooms devoted to the line!” Six weeks after the launch, other retailers received crystals in five colors: copper, gold, pink, gunmetal, and white; come spring, we can look forward to black and silver as well. Let’s just hope it’s a trend that lasts.