Too many cooks in the kitchen is never a bad thing in the denim market, where there are as many recipes to success as there are jeans lovers. Here, a look at some of the best of the new crop, including the latest denim confections by established designers, labels new to the blue and imports.
REDS JEANS
Who: Husband and wife team of Stefano and Lynne Turk.
Provenance: The Veneto region of Italy.
The Recipe: Billing itself as the alternative to the standard five-pocket jeans, Reds is denim with an industrial Thirties throwback. Even the zippers are modeled after the ones used during that time.
Stats: Four styles for bottoms, including the signature Katharine (as in Hepburn), a slouchy front-slanted pocket jean with two back flap pockets; $175 to $250.
For the Record: Stateside natives need not wince at the label’s catchphrase: “Reds — the dogs bollocks!” In the U.K. — Lynne’s motherland — it’s slang for “The best, bar none.”
RADCLIFFE DENIM
Who: Suzy Radcliffe
Provenance: London
The Recipe: 2000 pairs of test samples is a lot to exhaust in the search for the perfect jeans. But for Radcliffe, who previously logged seven years as a branding consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, practice makes perfect — and fantastically sexy too. There are fake front pockets for a cleaner silhouette; the stitching is dyed to match, and hem length is adjustable, courtesy of silver cufflinks. The kicker: fortune cookie sayings embroidered on the waistband.
Stats: Three styles — straight, boot and cigarette — in different washes and denims; $250.
For the Record: Style numbers may look familiar to those who have gone pub-crawling — they’re named after postal codes in London.