Transcript

Distressed Denim: Levi’s Tries to Adapt to the Yoga Pants EraLevi Strauss may have invented jeans, but it never saw yoga pants coming. Inside the effort to win back the hearts, and butts, of shoppers

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Sights is Levi Strauss’s senior director for technical innovation,

and the Telegraph Hill space is the company’s research and

development lab. There, Levi’s is overhauling its namesake brand’s

entire women’s line. 

His new technique, inspired by the makeup industry, is called contouring.

What is it?• Use lasers to etch away the top layer of indigo• Highlighting the center of the leg so the inner

and outer thighs appear to recede into the background, helping the leg look slimmer.

• Whisker patterns on the thighs are applied to draw the eye away from the edge of the hips

• Chevrons run along the legs to give an elongated impression

Left: Designers borrowed the cosmetics concept of “contouring” to make legs look skinnier.

Right: Sights’s desk at the San Francisco lab—and his indigo-stained fingernails.

Two decades ago, Levi’s was bigger than Nike, with revenue exceeding $7 billion. Sales have since sagged

to $4.8 billion 

HOW IS

THAT

POSSIBLE?

The introduction of athleisure AKA ‘Yoga Pants’

Levi’s finally introduced the new women’s line earlier this

month, at an event in Manhattan’s clubby Meatpacking

District

Follow along to learn more about Levi’s new business moves:

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