Phreshly Squeezed

Since last writing my review on Earnest Sewn jeans, I’ve acquired several more pairs from various designers (albeit, all of them in the skinny style) in an attempt to find my “best fit.” Needing a light weight pair for the summer, I managed to grab a pair of Hudson jeans that were not only light enough, in terms of fabric, but also a steal for its price ($99 CDN), at Holt Renfrew several months ago. Strange, though, that there is no proper identification on the labels as to which model this is; all I had were style numbers and such on the tag, but that didn’t pull up anything on the internet. Through Google search, I think I’ve manged to determine that the pair I’ve bought best resembles the “Carly Skinny Jean.”

What drew me in, aside from the price tag, was the wash of the jeans, which is great for the casual with its faded black tone and worn-in look. Drawing me in the most, though, was the fact that the inseam of the jeans measured 30″, which is what I wear, but incredibly rare to see these days. Often, I end up buying jeans with an inseam of 32″ or even 34″ and then have them hemmed soon after so that I am not rolling the bottoms into summer cuffs for the winter.

Now before I dive into the one negative that I have, I did have fair warning when I asked the sales rep when she did say that Hudson jeans stretch, as most denim does. Of course, I didn’t think that the pair would end up stretch one or two sizes up. So what went from a perfect and most comfortable fit (I was going in between either a 27 or 28 at the time, and chose the latter) wound up being loose at the waist and on the thighs. From the knee down, though, there wasn’t much stretch to it and the calf area remained fairly tight. With that said, the taper on the jeans is more than your usual pair of skinny jeans – it’s more narrow than what you would normally fine, which may leave you wanting to go one size up from the usual, which I did.

The jeans do hold up (no pun intended) and meet all other expectations that one would have; they’re comfortable, easy breathing, and durable. Perhaps what can best remedy the situation is a belt to cinch the waist together a bit more and to stop the jeans from slowly sinking. The next time that I go and buy a pair of Hudson jeans, though, I may have to go down to the smaller spectrum of what I wear.

About Hudson Jeans
Founded in Los Angeles in 2002 with the desire to embody British cool and California freedom, Hudson Jeans is often recognized with its union jack logo and triangular flap pockets. It is said that each pair is created from denim from Japan and Italy, and then each hand-finished and tailored to be one of a kind.

For more information, visit http://www.hudsonjeans.com

Image via coldbling.com

Remember in high school how there was a particular group to ensure that no one would be wearing the same prom dress? Maybe they should’ve considered something similar for the August issues of Elle UK, W Magazine, and VOGUE UK. On the mention of Prada in my last post, the brand comes up again in the news with its diffusion line Miu Miu, in which one of its dresses gracing the covers of three major magazines. While it serves as great exposure for Miu Miu, some are wondering how this happened.

Of course, it is more of a coincidence than anything. Many pieces of clothing and accessories are taken to shoots, some of which may not fit the model, and therefore, it isn’t guaranteed that the same piece can appear on two, let alone three covers of the same month. Is it possible for it to happen again? Yes. But likely? No.

Image courtesy of Guardian.co.uk

Up until now, the idea of purchasing high fashion goods via the brands’ websites was unheard of (with few exceptions; Louis Vuitton has been selling its accessories online since the LVMH owned eluxury.com went down in 2008). The idea of e-commerce mostly catered to affordable brands in the 90s, with high-end brands joining in on the trend in the new millennium; however most luxury brands were unfazed by such. The ideal luxury fashion website relied upon extravagant photographs in the background of a flash interface. As we can see, on a side note, the whole revolution of search engine optimization has yet to hit the high fashion markets, as many have opted to abandon flash in lieu for coding that is more readily crawled by Google. But of course, these websites still garner the hits because of the age of the domain, backlinks, trackbacks, and other factors. But finally, brands, such as Marc Jacobs, La Perla, and Hugo Boss, are opting to making their goods available online.

Why only now, though? Well, you can give some thanks to the recession, which has triggered the long needed movement towards e-commerce for high-fashion lines. With department stores slashing prices in half in attempts to collect some profits, fashion brands are recognizing their need to take control of their pieces. And quite frankly, it is about time, especially given that profits in the luxury-goods industry fell approximately 8% in 2009 without the aid of e-commerce. And while there won’t be friendly chatter to convince you which bag is best for your needs or advice on your true bra size, there is at least the option to shop at your convenience, as opposed to having to trek to the boutique.

One could also go so far as to say that the Louis Vuitton lawsuit against Google may have been a factor in moving luxury brands to the web. For those that may not have recalled the incident, Louis Vuitton was not to happy with the fact that upon searching the brand on Google, many websites for counterfeit products came up in the advertisement links. Not to mention, results for buying counterfeit bags in the actual search engine results comes up third and thereafter. So perhaps some of the move towards providing a sense of e-commerce is to steer consumers away from the prevalence of the counterfeit links and more towards purchasing power of owning a luxury item from the brand itself.

In any case, it’s about time.

Image courtesy of NYMag.com via Prada