Levi Strauss

A collection of sepia-tinted, artfully abraded men's trousers in a color palette ranging from pale putty to slate gray sit at crisp attention on the military-industrial shelving of L.A.'s trendy American Rag Cie boutique, beneath a sign that declares in all capital letters "BEFORE CORNERS WERE CUT." Nearby, a glass case displays the detailed construction of a pair of the pants that have been turned inside out. Tags dangling from the waistbands show prices as high as $200. Oh, did we mention that the premium pants in question are Dockers ?

It looks like New York Fashion Week has come down with a serious case of the blues. Blue jeans that is. While the twice-yearly showcase of designer clothing has never exactly been devoid of denim, the presentation of fashion collections for fall-winter 2012, which got underway Wednesday, is serving up a noticeably robust roster. West Coast brands including Levi Strauss, Hudson Jeans, 7 for All Mankind and a relaunched Rock & Republic have joined the ranks of the luxury labels.

Levi Strauss & Co. reported a second-quarter profit, aided by higher sales to store chains and in Asia and Europe that helped mitigate the damage to margins from higher cotton costs and discounting. The private company said second-quarter net income was $21 million, compared with a loss of $14.4 million a year earlier. Revenue, which includes sales and licensing revenue, rose 11.9% to $1.09 billion. Sales grew 19% in Asia and 17% in Europe; in constant-currency terms, the increases were 12% and 9%, respectively.

Levi Strauss & Co. reported a second-quarter profit, aided by higher sales to store chains and in Asia and Europe that helped mitigate the damage to margins from higher cotton costs and discounting. The private company said second-quarter net income was $21 million, compared with a loss of $14.4 million a year earlier. Revenue, which includes sales and licensing revenue, rose 11.9% to $1.09 billion. Sales grew 19% in Asia and 17% in Europe; in constant-currency terms, the increases were 12% and 9%, respectively.

Isn't it time that our corporate executives took a good look at our country's workers ("Levi Strauss and the Price We Pay," by Fred Dickey, Dec. 1)? This business of our great companies picking up and moving to get their "high-quality products" put together by the cheapest labor they can find, and bringing those products back to sell in America for a few bucks less, is for the birds. Those executives who seem to have one goal (their bottom line) are not interested that they are contributing to the vast number of unemployed and homeless people in our country.

Levi Strauss & Co. reported a 7% decline in its fiscal first-quarter operating profit to $142 million from a year ago as sales fell 8% to $996 million. But the jeans maker said the results for the quarter ended Feb. 25 marked an improvement over double-digit earnings declines in recent years and reflected efforts to reinvigorate its faded image, even in the face of a weak economy. Levi has been struggling to hold its own amid increasing competition from more youth-oriented clothing brands.

Levi Strauss' decision to move half its plants overseas in order to grow its business at home is flawed (Feb. 23). Two of the company's toughest competitors in the jeans market--the Gap and Tommy Hilfiger--routinely price their product on a par with or higher than Levi's jeans although they, too, have moved overseas. Why, then, are they gaining share? Branding, pure and simple. These companies cater to a maturing segment of the market who grew up wearing jeans and will pay $40 a pair as long as the experience of doing so supports the values they want to be associated with.

Levi Strauss & Co. said Wednesday that it removed two top executives and merged some of its U.S. and global businesses as the company works to revive flagging sales. The move came one week after the closely held San Francisco-based apparel maker said that marketing chief Gordon Shank was leaving after 25 years and that his duties would go to Chief Executive Philip Marineau.

Levi Strauss & Co., the closely held maker of jeans, named John Goodman president of its U.S. Dockers business. Goodman, who has been senior vice president and chief apparel officer at Kmart Holding Corp., will report to Levi Strauss Chief Executive Phil Marineau, San Francisco-based Levi Strauss said.

Levi Strauss & Co. said Wednesday that Bank of America has extended its line of credit to $1.88 billion, a move that will aid the famed jeans maker in its effort to revive flagging sales and regain a shrinking market share. Privately held Levi Strauss, which declined to specify its previous line of credit, said the extension will run for two years, until Jan. 31, 2002.

For the last 18 months, the folks at Levi Strauss & Co. have studied women around the world, conducting thousands of interviews and looking at 60,000 body scans of women in 13 countries. The company says the result — besides confirmation that for women, jeans shopping ranks right up there with buying bras and bathing suits as cause for angst — is a new global denim program that, by taking their curves into account, will provide nearly any woman with a five-pocket pair of jeans that feels custom-fit to her shape.

A collection of sepia-tinted, artfully abraded men's trousers in a color palette ranging from pale putty to slate gray sit at crisp attention on the military-industrial shelving of L.A.'s trendy American Rag Cie boutique, beneath a sign that declares in all capital letters "BEFORE CORNERS WERE CUT." Nearby, a glass case displays the detailed construction of a pair of the pants that have been turned inside out. Tags dangling from the waistbands show prices as high as $200. Oh, did we mention that the premium pants in question are Dockers ?

Evelyn Haas Widow of Levi's CEO Evelyn Haas, 92, a prominent San Francisco philanthropist and widow of Levi Strauss & Co. chief executive Walter Haas Jr., died Wednesday in San Francisco, her charitable foundation, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, announced. No cause was given. Fund officials say she led the foundation in contributing more than $364 million to hundreds of Bay Area organizations and projects, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony and the restoration of Crissy Field, a 100-acre park on San Francisco Bay at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

During his more than three decades in real estate David Pogue played many roles, but environmental expert was never one of them. That didn't stop his company, Los Angeles real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis, from naming him the company guru of all things eco-friendly nearly two years ago. Pogue suddenly found himself in charge of making the firm and its projects more energy efficient and environmentally conscious, an abrupt switch from his previous...

Claude Levi-Strauss, the French philosopher widely considered the father of modern anthropology because of his then-revolutionary conclusion that so-called primitive societies did not differ greatly intellectually from modern ones, died Friday at his home in Paris from natural causes. He was 100. Part philosopher, part sociologist and entirely humanist, he studied tribes in Brazil and North America, concluding that virtually all societies shared powerful commonalities of behavior and thought, often expressing them in myths.

Robert Geller wasn't just jumping on the seasonal trend bandwagon when he sent a sunny, upbeat collection down the runway Friday. He was undoubtedly in a good mood when he began designing the collection in February, just a few days after influential GQ magazine named him its best new menswear designer in America. And, while most designers have been trucking in a particularly American brand of can-do boosterism, Geller drew inspiration from his native Germany as it was in the late 1950s, a time of rebuilding and looking forward.

Levi Strauss & Co. opened its first jeans store in Vietnam to tap the potential market of young people hungry for American fashion in the communist country, state-controlled media reported. The store opened at a shopping center in Hanoi, and the San Francisco-based company planned to open additional stores elsewhere in the country, the Vietnam Economic Times said.

Levi Strauss & Co. said the president of its Americas division has left the jeans maker, a move analysts say highlights the need to reinvigorate the firm's faded brand. The San Francisco-based firm said James Lewis resigned to pursue other interests after less than a year on the job. During the search for his replacement, Levi Chief Executive Phil Marineau will head the Americas division, the company said.

Levi Strauss & Co. said it would hire Blake Jorgensen of Yahoo Inc. to be the San Francisco clothing maker's chief financial officer and executive vice president. Jorgensen, 49, is now CFO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo. The Internet company said in February that Jorgensen would be replaced. Yahoo will pay him $1.8 million in severance -- more than triple his salary.

Anchor Blue Retail Group Inc., which operates teen apparel chain Anchor Blue, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday, saying it would close dozens of stores and sell its outlet division. In the filing, the company said it had reached an agreement to sell 73 of its Levi's & Dockers Outlet by Most stores to San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co., which offered an opening bid of $72 million.