LOS ANGELES — Men who need a wardrobe to wear after college can seek refuge in Life/After/Denim.
Launching this fall with more than 20 styles and nary a pair of blue jeans in sight, the Los Angeles label tweaks military uniforms and prep-school wardrobes to offer serviceable sartorialism with moderate prices.
Retail prices start at $62 for short-sleeve woven shirts and $78 for pants. Outerwear includes $168 Melton wool military jackets, with the priciest reaching $425 for motorbike jackets cut out of lambskin leather.
“We saw a marketplace for men’s wear [that’s] affordable and stylish,” said Alexis Frey, co-founder of Life/After/Denim. “Affordable being the key word. We wanted to go into a price point that is friendly and approachable.”
Related Articles
To offer even more bargains in these tough economic times, Life/After/Denim is simultaneously launching a lower-priced line that bears the same name but is represented by a black tag in contrast to the flagship’s cream one. The styling for the offshoot reflects inspiration culled from the Sixties and Seventies, with less expensive fabrics and a brighter palette. Long-sleeve woven shirts in the diffusion line will retail for $58, or almost a third less than the counterpart in the main lineup.
You May Also Like
Urban Outfitters has already picked up the secondary line, while Nordstrom has signed on to carry both groupings. Other retailers that have placed orders for the main line include Planet Blue in Santa Monica, Calif., and Lisa Kline in Los Angeles, the company said.
“People are looking for value at this time,” said Michael Choi, Life/After/Denim’s other co-founder.
Indeed, value is the buzzword in fashion. Erik Hart added a men’s diffusion line dubbed MG Black Label this fall as an alternative to his main label, Morphine Generation, which had lowered prices by 20 percent. At the mass level, Target and Hennes & Mauritz are offering budget-conscious fashion for men through collaborations with Loomstate and Matthew Williamson, respectively.
Life/After/Denim insisted that it’s different because it emphasizes quality and classicism over fast fashion’s trends. The $78 chinos are available in two fits: slim with a 17-inch leg opening and straight that measures an inch wider. An $88 French terry hoodie is updated with brown piping on the front placket hiding the front zipper. Red stripes spice up cardigans and pullover sweaters retailing for less than $80.
What’s more, Life/After/Denim will offer one reversible item each season. For fall, it’s an $88 reversible puffer vest covered in gray herringbone on one side and black-and-white plaid on the other. The holiday collection will feature a yet-to-be-priced khaki twill trench that turns inside out to reveal a workwear-inspired jacket of broken twill (even the sleeve belts are reversible).
While Frey and Choi are making their mark in the fashion business for the first time with the launch of Life/After/Denim, they are tapping into their families’ decades-long experience in apparel manufacturing. Their fathers have been business partners for more than 30 years at CFL Enterprise, a Hong Kong-based trading company that produces apparel for brands ranging from American Eagle Outfitters and DKNY to J. Crew and Volcom through a network of factories in Asia.
After graduating from Vassar College, Frey entered the family business, learning about technical design, product development and fabrics. Choi, Life/After/Denim’s sales director who defers to Frey for creative direction, had earned a Master’s degree in public health from the University of Southern California before leaving health care to launch the line. With CFL manufacturing their garments, they project first-year sales to hit $500,000.