Jeans are back in the combat zone

You could have forgiven Levi's for thinking that the world was going to be forever in blue jeans during the 1990s. Everyone had at least one pair of jeans, their status had gone beyond that of fashion accessory or even uniform and had become an essential, like shoes or a suit. Yet suddenly, in 1998 profits fell by 13 per cent and in the space of two years, the company had to close 24 factories, laying off some 13,000 staff. The jean genie had stopped working its magic.

Levi's were not the only jeans manufacturers suffering losses at that time. Niall MacNeaney, area sales director for Wrangler and Lee jeans in Ireland, reckons that their ranges went through a slump from late 1997 into 1998. "It was due to a combination of factors. As jeans manufacturers we just weren't innovative enough; we got a little lackadaisical about our market position and didn't pay enough attention to our product. Then there was the huge surge in popularity of sportswear - cargo pants, urban wear, all those clothes with toggles on them. We weren't keeping up with our competitors."

During 1998, everyone from the All Saints and Madonna, to roadies, groupies, hippies and yuppies were sporting combats, or cargo pants as they're also known, which were originally standard issue for Danish and German soldiers. Combats were worn low on the hip exposing tattoos or pierced navels. Jeans meanwhile, were worn by Tony Blair, middle-aged motoring guru Jeremy Clarkson, RTE's Gerry Ryan and Richard Branson - hardly fashion icons for the notoriously picky 15-25 age group. Faced with falling sales figures, it was time for Levis, Wrangler, Lee et al to do some serious repositioning. Each of the big market players has come up with a new take on basic denim jeans, accompanied by a whole new marketing ploy aimed at catapulting their jeans back into cult status. There is, of course, a precedent for all this - when Levi's relaunched 501s back in 1985 using the delectable Nick Kamen in a launderette, sales went up 800 per cent after a worldwide slump in denim, blamed on the popularity of fitness clothing and lycra.

Levi's first strike was the StaPrest range and a series of ads using the groovin' puppet Flat Eric - it wasn't a jeans range but it was an attempt to get people back into desiring Levi's - as well as the limited edition Levi's Red label. Wranglers came up with four new ranges - Retro, Westernwear, Authentics and Trail in a new fabric, Broken Twill. And Lee launched Denim 42, with an expensive campaign which included a press book with a heat-sensitive cover. Levi's final stroke was their Engineered range, which most people know as "Twisted jeans" from the ad campaign by Bartle, Bogart, Hegarty, (also responsible for Nick Kamen's boxer shorts and Flat Eric) which shows a young couple dressing each other only to be surprised by her naked parents.

All three have reported an increase in sales, with Wranglers and Lee up some 12 per cent on last year's sales figures at this time. So what have they done to bring their ranges up to date? "Fabric innovation is absolutely key," says Niall MacNeaney. "We're really taking denim further and making it in a new format so we can get a huge variety of tints, washes and shapes. The consumer is so well informed now and they're looking for comfort, a softer, easier feel and a tighter weave." While designer jeans ranges account for less than one per cent of the market in Ireland, there are clear signs of their influence on all the new ranges. Dark denim and hipster cuts like the ultra-trendy label Earl jean, crop up across the ranges, as do the baggy cuts of cult Japanese label, Evisu, which ironically bought up Levi's original looms two years ago.

THE idea of customisation, which swept the catwalks with Gucci's feathered and beaded numbers a couple of season ago, Helmut Lang's Dirty Denim range and Chloe's jeans this season, has influenced mass-market ranges too. "Customisation is huge" says MacNeaney. "It's exploded in the women's market where customers want to buy a pair of jeans which is a bit more individual to them." Levi's creative director, Caroline Parent went to Tokyo for six weeks and came back with the idea for Engineered Jeans, which feature a pocket for mobile phones, a bottom seam which sits more comfortably with trainers, and skewed side seams which apparently allow greater freedom of movement. In addition, the Levi's flagship store on Dublin's Grafton Street has been totally re-vamped, following the success of a new store on London's Regent Street, which boasts DJ booths, record shops and chill-out zones.

Ironically, in their mission to re-find their cool, jeans manufacturers have been helped by the very trend that toppled them from their supremacy in the first place. Now that every chain store, mass manufacturer and catalogue company is offering a version of combats, they, too, have been afflicted with what fashion pundits call "the Clarkson factor". After all, if your dad has started sporting cargo pants at the weekend, what could be more appealing than a pair of sleek indigo jeans?