Gurus of Denim- By Carly

On Monday, April 27th was the Captains of the Fashion Industry Lecture series, titled “Gurus of Denim” which featured Adriano Goldschmied and Jerome Dahan. After discussing the denim industry very broadly I discovered that 22% of California clothing sales are that of denim, which shows how huge the market is. Adriano Goldschmied proceeded to talk about the industry, and how he was so successful in design and entrepreneurship. Adriano is best known for his work with GAP, starting Diesel, AG jeans and other brands such as Adriano Goldschmied Jeans, Goldsign, A Gold E… He started his first company in Italy and focused on how to sell the product by using presentation methods and researching demand. In those days, jeans were still a utility or “work wear” clothing item. However, companies such as Wrangler and Levi brought the Jean to a new level as an everyday clothing item. However people look for the best, and therefore Goldschmied reinvented the jean as a luxury product, this was a new generation of product that would continue to expand through his entrepreneur skills. Adriano brought his company AG jeans to California, as America had a lot of opportunity in the denim business. Bringing the business to California provided the chance to build the product, because denim dominated the market.
Jerome on the other hand, started as a designer for Guess jeans, and then Lucky Brand. He decided to leave lucky brand, he says, “what makes us grow is to evolve” and so he decided to recreate the industry by presenting a new product to new customers. He then started 7 for All Mankind, which became extremely successful and revolutionized the denim industry. However, his partnerships fell through because of trust issues and so he decided to yet again move on and start Citizens of Humanity, with more trustful people and over 3 years had sold 60% of the company to bigger companies. It was interesting to hear the more personal anecdotes of this story such as how he named both of the companies; both were influenced by the movie, Armageddon.
The lecture was then opened up to questions and there was much discussion on the environmental impact of the denim industry, which both designers were very interested in pursuing. Different techniques they discussed included using organic cotton, and more environmentally friendly zippers, but the main concern is the dying, because it uses chemical acids and lots of water, they are trying to figure out a more resourceful way of producing jeans. Jeans are in such high demand and really do represent the spirit of America. So future designers just need to keep asking what is going to be the next demand?