What Makes a Pair of Jeans cost $635

Yesterday’s NY Times included a story about the newest fashion trend–high priced jeans. What makes any pair of denim pants worth SO much?

“To start with, Evisu weaves its cloth on shuttle looms that, unlike the projectile type in widespread industrial use, leave clean edges on the fabric. They are then dyed using what the label’s Web site terms “rare and ancient” equipment, meaning machines that are roughly 40 years old.

Each Evisu garment is given 16 and sometimes as many as 30 “dips” to achieve the proper rich shade of deep indigo blue. And, because the old looms are narrow, each pair of Evisus requires at least three yards of fabric. The end result, with a stylized gull stitched onto the rear pocket, costs in the vicinity of $635. Not for nothing, it would seem, is Evisu named after the Japanese god of loot.

“We sell through everything we get,” Joseph Laurenti, the manager of Atrium in New York, said, adding that other brands like Nudie, True Religion, Antik, Slab by Rick Owens and All Saints spend only the briefest time on the shelves before migrating onto some of Manhattan’s more fashionable backsides.”