You’ll never have to wash these jeans in your life
De Nijs. “We’re for denim lovers. It’s hard to target denim consumers in terms of age groups. What a kid of 16 thinks cool may also be cool for a guy of 45.”
Banquet
Its spokespersons are a varied mix, and have included the actresses Liv Tyler, Gemma Arterton and Clemence Poesy, film director Vincent Gallo, and teen chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. Actors Dennis Hopper and Benicio del Toro have also appeared on G-Star runways.
G-Star has also had a longstanding design collaboration with Australian industrial designer Marc Newson.
In the fall, the brand will debut campaigns featuring rising American model Arizona Muse and young American actor Caleb Landry Jones. The campaigns were shot by music photographer Anton Corbijn.
“It’s a banquet,” said Ray to explain the G-Star target market in relation to its choice of endorsers. “It doesn’t exclude anybody. It’s a mind style rather than a lifestyle.”
G-Star is available in 21 countries but doesn’t operate its own stores, save for two in Amsterdam. In the Philippines, it’s exclusively distributed by Primer Group of Companies, the same company that runs The Travel Club and ROX, among others, in partnership with Singapore’s Sidefame Fenix Group. The BHS Central store carries men’s and women’s collections, and accessories.
Ray said G-Star plans to open new categories for select markets with lower, entry-level price points. (A typical pair of G-Star jeans retails north of P10,000. Denim lovers have surely paid that much and more for a pair during the premium-jean trend era 10 years ago.)
It’s also beefing up its women’s segment, beginning with the opening of its first concept women’s boutique in Amsterdam in September, which was previewed at the Bread & Butter event in Berlin.
“We’re underdeveloped in women,” Ray said. “There’s a place for a strong, in control, tough, confident styling for modern women.”
In Amsterdam, I was coaxed into trying a G-Star Arc pair: super lowrise, baggy, boyfriend jeans style—quite a departure from the skinny, and even occasional flare, styles that I prefer. Never mind the comfort—that’s a given and not top priority for someone who teeters in high heels most days—but I really liked what I saw that I bought the pair.
“If you find a new silhouette, everything in your closet isn’t interesting anymore,” De Nijs had said.
Granting I’ve worn them only once, on a sultry day in Berlin, it took a lot of resolve not to send my jeans to the cleaners when I arrived home. And it’s only because of that no-wash situation that my G-Stars have remained there, hanging a safe distance from the rest of my clothes.
I haven’t decided on my next move: Do I cross the threshold and wear them—unwashed—again, or do they first get their germ-killing time in the fridge, next to the chicken and ice cream?