Parties or Funerals! Jeans Are Forever!!
Odd to see someone, unmindful of age,
gender, geography…..who doesn’t wear jeans.
Doubtful if anyone’s wardrobe will be without the denim fabric. Guys and
Gals walk in jeans, talk in jeans, dance in jeans, sleep in jeans…. Because it is durable? Material
is thicker? Fashionable? Just casual? Feel privileged? Cute & Comfy?
Stretchy & Sexy? Low maintenance?...... Could be any number of reasons? Or
no reason at all? Just wear jeans!
A
little more than an inquiring mind to pursue the details about the most preferred
casual wear that will always be in vogue, led us to meet Mr. B.J. Saiswarroop, General Manager, Zovi,
Bangalore.
Excerpts from the jeanterview:
Why jeans the most
popular casual dress all over the world, cutting across gender and geography,
reason and season ?
Jeans( layman's term), now popularly known as Denims(technical term) is perhaps the best
clothing mankind ever asked for, its for all seasons, no geographical undertone; more worn-out and it gets that much more fashionable and valued more as
well, I’ve never come across any other fabrication that can most certainly be
compared to an antique piece.
Do you see jeans as a
mere casual wear or more than a fashion statement?
It depends on how you
want to fashion your way with a Jean ..it can blend into both easily !!
“Never wear jeans
for a job, no matter how casual the job is”. Tropical spots do not help relish formal clothing for obvious climatic reasons. On the contrary, they don’t present pleasant and also
look over-dressed. Why not sport a
semi-casual attire? How about a nice-collared shirt with well-pressed jeans?
While denims have been
associated quite a bit with Friday
dressing, personally I would want to wear it all the time, fortunately for me
have always been associated with an organization that doesn’t dress formal, may
be a clean look on the jean with a white shirt could be an ideal way of semi
formalizing the office wear and accept it as an offshoot of formal wear, extending this with an odd coat
almost covers for a suit! it’s the thought process that has to change. Mostly,
some section which I would recommend perhaps a little out of the box would be for
school children, you can these days get a stretch denims which will make the
life of playing children comfortable and yet can manage all the wear and tear!
What is your take on fashion in today’s scenario?
Whatever one’s
comfortable wearing becomes fashionable as long as they can carry themselves with what they are
wearing.
How was “jeans”
accepted as an universally acceptable casual wear?
It dates back when the
coalminers in the west took it outside their functional work place. It became popular once this got out of and
became a household overall suit and provided so much a protection first and it
was long lasting too.
What could be the
percentage of jeans market compared to other casual wear? Do you see any
competition to wearing jeans?
I haven’t seen another
fabric developed which even comes close to a jean thus far, so it just stands out
as the fabric you can die for when it comes to your wardrobe. I would rate the
jean market as a whole to a good 30-40 % in the Apparel world and its growing
further with all the R & D happening
with it subjected to variable
washing all over the world.
“The longer you wear
or the less washed, the more character and attitude they acquire”.
This argument is a
little subjective as I would like to believe its horses for courses as an
example in cold countries, it protects from the chill especially as a bottom
wear, you can use it as a sustainable source and save water [ on a lighter
note!!] Out in India our summers are
harsh, although we could still pull up a denim to quickly venture out ..esp..
if you are a man, I would still recommend to wash it after about 2 /3 alternate
usage. As well as my earlier comment too, as they say with age you get wise, the
denims mature with age dishing out.
Can you briefly tell
something about the types of jeans – say, like classic fit, straight fit,
skinny leg….?
As the world evolved and
took the fashion alongside, different fits with stretch peppered in, gave
denims another lease of life, it thus captured the imagination of all the
contemporary designers who idolized denims and dished out another ensemble on
its way to popularity.
Do you have jeans
types for different seasons/geographic/climatic conditions?
Yes jeans/Denims come in
different thickness, and functionality to cater to all the differential
seasons, denims can come with a thickness starting from 3/5 ounce to one that
gets up to 16/17 ounce, the heavier it gets its translated to more than a
casual wear/trouser in particular…as we all know the jeans from its
birth….there are drift moisture managed denims, there are denims which stretch
2 way/4 way too …denims that are bruised and battered which ends up eventually
on the fashion podium.
Recently I came across
a pair of jeans (Levi’s) costing US$ 46,000/-. Can you throw some light on the significance
for such a staggering price tag?
I know for a fact that a
polo tee in one of the L Capital-managed-high-end-store in Delhi costs about Rs
26k …in our Bangalore Levise stores the highest pair of jeans that I have seen
is around Rs 14 k …..all of these prices make no sense so far as the material
going in is concerned…perhaps some gold or diamond could be studded in place of
the common rivets on the jeans, else it could just be a fashion statement made
subtly and something which has a unique selling point as far as its attestation
is concerned, it could have been signed off for a super model or perhaps a
signature line with some popular actor statesman, politician …..when people are rich enough to own a
Picasso, I wun shudder to think in the recent times that a pair of jean costing as much as $ 46 k
would be a master piece, however that’s the way it works…I guess.
How is the global
market share is distributed?
Global market share is
distributed in terms of tiering of brands and designer labels…say for instance
Levise, Lee, wrangler are the primary denim brands with every other brand
falling suit ..I can put a rough figure of
the first 3 capturing @least 60 % of the world market share and the rest
filling in as an approximate measure.
How does washing, shrinking and bleaching makes an impact on the fabric?
Washing accomplishes
shrinking and is the integral
part of the Jean. It’s the world of washing that does jeans the way it turns
out to be ….in fact all of this started off with the indigo dye which under
different wash conditions gives out hundreds of shades with most of the times
is so typical that it cannot be duplicated no matter what sort of scientific
recipe one would give it, Bleaching is also a part of the wash process where
you would want a jean that is typically worn out of the indigo dye and renders
the jean colorless.
Are all jeans of the
same basic quality? Why are they priced so differently?
The basic quality of the
Jean is attributed towards its weight to start of and the kind of weave that it
hold, the prices come in different simply because of the wash, which is the
biggest value addition and of course the fit which people symbolize with ….I
for one can swear by the Levise Fit and till date, while I have experimented, have not seen another brand that fits as good as a Levise.
How will you be able
to tell a fine-quality denim from a lower-quality denim?
Everything about a denim
is determined by the wash it carries no matter what the weight of the fabric is.
What if you don’t want
to spend a lot of money on a pair, but you still want a quality product (of
course you are ready to compromise on the brand)- what characteristics that you
would look for when you are buying the jeans?
I would first think
about the fit as far as am concerned, after which I would look for the feel of
the denim ..i prefer it nicely washed down and with a soft hand, then I would perhaps look at the
shade that it bring in …I prefer a gradual washed down effect to the one which has too many patches and looks
really busy when you wear it, secondly I don't think I can carry off the one which
has too many finishes on it.
Why some designs fade very fast?
Fading is part of a deal
in denim, every denim is made to fade after a few number of washed and further
more as part of its complete life cycle, some designs perhaps fade faster than
you like it because it might not have been washed out effectively during the
first stage of its transformation.
How can you help a
common person identify a good pair of jeans from a duplicate one?
This one is not that easy, because theses days the knock offs [ duplicates are so well made]…however
there are a few points where you want to look into like the zipper finishing
and the belt loops on the outside and the finishing on the inside upper back as
well as the pocket bags [ which are normally compromised by the fakes]….the
rivets carrying the logos as well as the brand
patch at the back are give aways if you observe well enough.
When you say jeans,
you instantly think of denim blue; why other colors didn’t become prominent?
That’s because indigo
dyes which make up for the typical blue could not be replaced by any other
color for long till another form of direct dyes were found out, after which all
kinds of colors started to flow in
How is the
export-market for Indian manufactured jeans?
The brands have
typically made country of origins a mere pushover simply because the processes
of making a denim all over the world with a particular brand is the same, the
only difference is perhaps the price that is determined by the cost of
manufacturing, else denims/their fits all over the world with a particular brand
will be the same.
When you wear tight
jeans (ladies in particular), squeezing into tight pants – does it cause
numbness or leave a dark impression or any nerve compression or any abdominal
discomfort due to ill-fitting clothes?
Tight fitting clothes do
suffocate the skin to a large extent, however science has prevailed and
technology has made life easier typically in the form of breathable fabrics
where the air movement eases the skin and renders the wearer less
discomfort, and with stretch fabrics coming in skin tights became more popular and they also made a
fashion statement with the additional SLIM persona which typically would
divulge women’s curves.
Do you think that
garment industry can initiate that jeans be projected as a better, clean and
professional formal wear?
More than the garment
industry I would think the fashion industry will yet change the name of the
game in denim…there were so many occasions when we did sign off that denims
will loose its sheen and will fade out….on the contrary our thoughts had to
fade out as the denims always came back with a bang and dominated the fashion like
no other fabric/style quotient does.
What can be the best
match for denim-blue jeans trouser – shirt or tee?
My typical all time
favourite which still looks classy and chic on a man …WHITE SHIRT AND A BLUE
JEAN !!
What is your estimate
as an average price for a good pair of
jeans (in us$)?
Typically a Jean starts
off from $28 and ranges up to 70 dollars for a high end on a upper middle class
level, however in all dimensions one should get a nice brand of jean for about
40 dollars !!
Last, what is the best alternative to jeans?
If not a jean pant …I
would still prefer a jean short !!! ….guess there’s no particular replacement
for denim …@least I perhaps wun see in this lifetime of mine, if there comes
one I did be completely surprised and shocked ,,,,,STILL….yet I would go for a denim.
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Mr.Saiswarroop has been with the Apparel industry for about 18 years now. An industrial engineer, Mr.Swarroop had earlier worked as Product Development Manager with Nike Sourcing India Ltd. for 14 years and has wide exposure in inherent garment product knowledge and has widely travelled.
He has also managed teams of various categories of business units within Nike, product commercialisation that includes product approvals, starting from development, costing and getting the product buy ready, testing processes, managing the best lead times; in the recent responsibility also managed sports graphics tees, across all Nike categories NFL [national football league] and track and field products.
