| Page 4 of 4 < |
Jeans Therapy
Richard Ostell, creative director at Liz Claiborne, is designing for women looking for pants that are flattering and styles that suit their age.
(By Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Sales are no longer in freefall, but they continue to drop. For 2006, the Liz Claiborne brand reported net sales fell by 9 percent compared with 2005. And when the corporate parent reported its first quarter net sales for 2007 earlier this week, they were down by 1.6 percent. Earnings per share were down by 65 percent. The Liz Claiborne brand was fingered as one of the key causes.
Beyond 'Mom Jeans'
As part of the brand's makeover, Ostell reworked the trousers in the Liz Claiborne collection. Was the company harboring "mom jeans" -- notorious high-waisted dungarees with an unfathomable number of pleats and tapered legs that can make even the leanest figure look like a sack of potatoes?
Ostell mutters something unintelligible to himself and then stares at his fingernails. Thomas-Graham goes mute and refuses to make eye contact.
Seven pants silhouettes were winnowed to three: "Kylie," which sits at the natural waist; "Audra," which fits just below the waist; and "Sloane," which has a lower rise.
Notice that the company refers to the "Sloane" pants as having a "lower" rise, not as "low-rise." Semantics, it turns out, are important.
At fit clinics around the country, women were invited to come in with their favorite trousers. Thomas-Graham offers Exhibit A. It is before-and-after photographs of a woman with long, strawberry-blond hair and glasses who looks to be in her 40s. In the before picture, she is wearing her favorite trousers and smiling broadly. The pants are khaki with a multitude of pleats. They are full through the thighs and tapered. They look too large, too baggy and sit so high on her waist that they turn her boyish figure into a large rectangle.
"Throughout all the focus groups, there've been certain constant things," Ostell says. "Every woman says, 'Low-rise? That's my daughter.' And these are women in their 30s and 40s saying this." The women stubbornly refused to believe such pants could ever be flattering.
Ostell encouraged Ms. Exhibit A to try the Sloane pants. Some might say he was reduced to wheedling. The Sloane pants aren't low-rise, after all, just lower.
In the after image, the woman looks neater. Even her posture has improved.
Notes from the fit clinic reveal this:
"Many were surprised that the lower rise hid their problem areas (usually stomach) even better than a higher-waisted, pleated pant."
"Many noted that actually the wider waistband made the pants fit comfortably and prevented their stomach from rolling over."
Along the way, the company also learned that while their customers loved slim-fitting jeans, they wouldn't give anything called "skinny" a second glance.
If the company took away anything from its conversations with customers, it was that "women want fashion in their lives, but they're confused about how to do that," says Thomas-Graham.
Liz Claiborne is also betting that they'll want a perfect pair of pants.
