Madewell Launches Affordable Denim

Madewell is ready for some growth. "We've set some ambitious targets to take it well beyond where it's been. We are ready," said Millard "Mickey" Drexler, who started reinventing the old New England factory workwear label in 2007 into something young, hip and laid back.

Besides honing the look, Drexler, the chairman and chief executive officer of J. Crew Group Inc., Madewell's parent, has overhauled the Madewell team by addng Lisa Greenwald, head of merchandising; Michael Salmon, head of planning and allocation, and Susan Cernek, who is in charge of marketing. He also relaunched their denim in premium fabrics and new styles and fits.

"I have always been pretty obsessed with denim," said Drexler, who almost always wears jeans. "When I was in college I used to wash my denim in the washing machine to bleach it out," Drexler said in an interview. "But forget my personal history. After being in business with Madewell for seven years we were thinking how we could be better at what we do, which is what we always do."

Drexler's initial idea didn't pan out - he approached some well-known denim brands run by friends. "They didn't want to sell us because of other accounts and the usual politics. Frankly, I was getting a little angry they wouldn't sell us. But we do everything else that wholesalers or designers do so we thought 'Why can't we take on the denim business?' We didn't have the in-house expertise. We found out we didn't know enough about fabric, the technology of fabric, creating the best fits and the best washes. That became critical. So we decided to figure it out ourselves. We felt there wasn't anyone out there doing denim of the quality-value relationship we are now doing."

So Drexler recruited fabric, technical, production, pattern and fit experts for their new denim studio. It's based in Los Angeles, which he considers "the world capital for jeans."

The result of Drexler's effort is the new premium denim priced from $75 to $100 less than Madewell's competitors, and its created with fabrics bought from the same mills. There are twelve washes and five fits in the new premium fabric and all washes and treatments are processed by hand, meaning no two pairs are alike. The jeans range from $98 to $135. Madewell also offers hand-washed Chimala jeans from Japan, priced from $350 to $500.

Drexler said that the Madewell jeans "have a degree of stretch, don't bag out, have a memory and keep their shape. The yarn is made of a stretch core. It's really soft. It doesn't pinch the skin. We have perfected the ideal back pocket placement in our opinion."

Other changes include Drexler's appointment of Somsack Sikhounmuong as Madewell's head designer. Sikhounmuong is a graduate of Parsons The New School for Design and a former J.Crew designer. His plan is to sharpen Madewell's point of view and streamline the collection. Said Drexler: "He's evolving the collection, focusing in on what's been working really well, denim, chambray and perfecting our iconic pieces - jeans and chambray shirts. But everything is evolving all the time. Look at the stores now. The visual is changing. There is a much more focused point of view on jeans, chambray shirts, boots, women's woven shirts, a cool assortment of sweaters, accessories and jewelry. It's really visual. It's edited."