The Death of Premium Jeans Highly Exaggerated

In a few short years we watched as jeans as jeans eclipsed $100, then $150 and now most premium denim lines have comfortably cleared $200. Then there was the backlash, as new brands like Cheap Monday became all the rage with their $65 jeans. But premium jeans are not done, oh no, and two recent articles bear witness to that.

First there's the Forbes article that notes "in 2005 the number of premium pairs sold doubled over the previous year, and in the first eight months of this year, they've risen 33%." Then there's the JC Report piece introducing yet another slew of high-end denim labels.

Our view on premium denim has always been that among the dozens of labels out there you have to be able to separate the companies that sell jeans for $200 because they can to the few that seem to actually care about the materials and construction.

Rag & Bone makes its jeans in North Carolina using premium Japanese denim.

PRPS makes its own selvege denim from African cotton on looms in Japan. You only need look at one of their jeans up close to see their uncompromising attention to detail.

Among the more widely distributed lines Earnest Sewn does a pretty good job as does Habitual (if you don't mind the giant cross on your ass). If you'd like to go more obscure you can go for the Japanese denim lines at Blue in Green.

But for each one of these companies there are 5 that take denim of equal quality to those in cheaper jeans, manufacture jeans in some random factory, spend a ton on making sure they end up in the right magazines and on the right celebrities, all to convince the public into shelling out $200 for their average product. Buyer beware.