LA's True Religion Is Overpaying For Jeans
Perhaps lately you've taken notice of a recurring image on the streets of LA: a little buddha blissfully strumming a guitar, usually found on a Hollywood-type ass sashaying ahead of you. He should be smiling, because he's the logo for True Religion jeans, the $200-plus must-have clothing obsession of the moment. With the opening of their first store in Manhattan Beach, and plans for a wider expansion, the LAT gives the hot local company a closer look:
Those who sell the jeans say the premium prices are justified because the denim is top quality and the pants are painstakingly hand-finished by workers who sand them to the perfect shade, fray pockets and hems with grinders and sometimes stitch on patches in unique patterns.
"It's very expensive to do that," said Jeffrey Lubell, True Religion's chief executive and co-founder. [...]True Religion's big break, analysts say, came in connecting with celebrities such as Jessica Simpson and Cameron Diaz, who appeared in magazines wearing the jeans.
"People look at US Weekly and see what Paris Hilton is wearing coming out of Kitson on Robertson Boulevard," analyst Van Ert said.
Unlike other, more cost-prohibitive status items available at Kitson, True Religion banks of the fact that their carefully chosen price point of $200 is just within reach of the armies of Paris clones who long to swaddle their rears in the same tattered luxury denim as their famous hero. But as recently illustrated by the once ubiquitous Ugg boot, this crowd is a fickle bunch who would happily line up for an ultratrendy, $300 Swarovski-crystal-encrusted gaping head wound if Lindsay Lohan was photographed sporting one in Life & Style.
