I have a massive problem with Levi's. Shopping for pair of Levi's jeans can be such an alienating experience. Look, they're the only jeans which are a) stylish; b) can take a bit of wear and tear and still maintain some level of urban-fab; and c) for a top grade designer brand, don't cost as much as other upmarket denim brands.
But I resent having to be made to feel less-than when handling the merchandise in the Levi's stores, or their associated trade partners. It's akin to entering quasi-upmarket stores where the store hands prefer to preen and pose, waiting for a photographer to take their picture, and via osmosis you gotta figure out what you have in your hands...eish!
However, my issues with the body-obvious sales people are being put to rest.
In an informal pow-wow with Tracey Kirsten, marketing manager for Levi Strauss South Africa, she said that they have been taking note on how the product is sold and how the customer is ushered into Shopper's Paradise - and it has been found wanting.
Dominique de Waal is wielding the battle baton, charged with revolutionising the way the product is perceived by customer and sales person. The result: better sales, customer happiness and bigger brand awareness.
De Waal has a Herculean task ahead, and one way where Levi's can truly start wooing conservative shoppers like yours truly is by actually having the sales people speak to us about their new winter range - April till September - in which the reliable 501 is back!
The 501 is the winter range's pivot, a product revamped by straightening the leg and lowering the waist and back pockets.
The "smoke" finish is a strong seasonal statement and the end product has a cleaner, more authentic look. The 501 is revisited every 10 years (and who is not immune to the Amandla! theme?), to make sure it is still relevant and contemporary.
The anti-fit aspect of the current 501s is the product's social indicator. More relaxed (or should one rather say, anti-establishment?), one can wear it oversized, way oversized, a bit dressed up...options on how to wear the jeans are more obvious and welcomed.
Sticking with its rather roundabout democratic theme, Levi's is lending its considerable corporate weight to the local music industry.
The brand has always been about being a free spirit, and clothing artists like DNA Strings, Karen Zoid, Flat Stanley, Goddessa (Long live! Long live! or should that be Long Sleeve! Long Sleeve!?), Tumi and the Volume, Kobus!, Bed on Bricks and Louise Carver does seem to be the next marketing step.
Dubbed Levi's Original Music, the project was designed to act more as an agent than a sponsor, with three objectives: assisting in album production, providing adequate exposure ensuring the music and image reaches the relevant target, and to create a platform to create more exposure locally and internationally.
- Foschini gets the design competition calendar going with a call for entries for the upcoming Foschini Design Awards. Launched in 2002, the competition aims to uncover and encourage local design talent. Designers, particularly young ones, need financial incentives to push the envelope. Yes, we know how they suffer for their craft.
And yes, we're aware of multi-national fashion hydras snapping up the talent and trapping them in Corporate Hell, but empathy only goes so far. Forget your manicure, pick up pen and paper and get busy!
The competition is open to the following: fashion design students, individuals already in the rag trade, and also those who are looking for their Idols opportunity.
Falling in line with what most fashion houses are presenting as the latest international trends, this year's theme is 1950s lady-like summer, inspired by movies like the upcoming comedy-thriller Stepford Wives and others such as Far From Heaven and Mona Lisa Smile.
C'mon, you must remember Far From Heaven, starring Julianne Moore as the typical 1950s housewife and Dennis Quaid as the closeted homosexual husband. The film has a place of honour in a fashionphile's mental desktop.
Far From Heaven's costume designer is Sandy Powell, who also worked on Gangs of New York, the Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise psycho-sexual mythical horror Interview with a Vampire, as well as Shakespeare in Love.
Far From Heaven boasts sumptuous fabrics, pencil-thin silhouettes, and of course, reliable acting not only from Moore and Quaid, but also the statuesque Patricia Clarkson and Dennis Haysbert.
This year's awards will recognise two categories of winners: a
student bursary and small business start-up. The best student walks away with a R25 000 bursary and will also join Foschini's design and fashion studio as an intern.
The small business winner walks off with R30 000 as a foundation to launch a label, the winner also enjoying financial support from the group's financial executive (how to draw up a business plan, focusing on annual financial statements et al.)
Oh, and designs should be in no later than April 23. Entry forms at www.foschini.co.za. Finalists will be announced on May 3.
So, get busy. - Chairman Serge "Long Sleeve! Long Sleeve!"