Adding to the list of FIRSTS at our Denimsandjeans.com Bangladesh show was the LIVE VIDEO presentation by Leopoldo Durante from Italy . Leopoldo, a veteran in denim industry who has worked with some of the most respected brands in the industry including Evisu, Versace, D&G, Martelli, Miss Sixty and a host of other names in his 25 years of career, agreed to present his vision for denims in AW17 directly from his office in Italy to our visitors and audience in Dhaka through a skype presentation on 10 x 8 feet wide screen at our show. It was an experiment by us and as in all new experiments there is an element of fear of something unexpected to happen. However, the presentation went through like a cakewalk and Leopoldo’s larger than life image on the screen , his booming Italian voice and his deep knowledge on denim impressed the audience very much. The presentation, which lasted over 30 minutes , enabled the audience to directly see what was Leopoldo’s vision of denim becoming in the Fall ‘17 .
We are giving here below the text of the presentation that he made along with some slides from his presentation. But the best part is to check out the video on this page where a part of his presentation is uploaded on YouTube here or just click on image below .
Actual text of Leopoldo’s Skype Presentation
I am a designer. I used to travel a lot around the world. I went to Los Angeles and New York, London, Berlin. I went to Tokyo. I live in Italy. We have three different continents with three different visions on indigo, denim and jeans. The US is a huge market. Europe is a great market. In Asia the denim market and production is concentrated in Japan. In the US brands are focused on celebrities denim. Europe is obsessed with designer denim. Asia is focused on vintage denim.
In the US the market is focused on women’s wear. They have women as ambassadors. The market is not focused on quality but on celebrities who wear denim. And they call it premium. But I feel it’s not true. It’s not premium in the sense we call it. It is called premium because it’s worn by the wealthy. I would not call it jeans, I would call it pants. And this is ironical because the American people invented denim. But what they do is sell super stretch for women at astronomical prices. And it is not even denim. It is just a pair of pants.
The situation in Europe is more focused on the design. It’s about designers and not about brands. There are French luxury brands and historic denim brands. Diesel is moving from pure denim to designer denim. I also have my own brand. Europeans add things like Swarovski. They do strong washing.
Asia is focused on vintage. Asia, Europe and the US have a different approach to the denim market. Asia is more focused on tradition, heavy fabrics, non stretch fabrics, classic looks. They use selvedge and rigid ones. This is particularly true of the Japanese market. In Europe they think of the value of the brand and value of the design. America is focused on beauty, super stretch.
In future denim and jeans will be back to their roots. Fabrics will be heavy and not super stretch. We will have real denim made on a shuttle loom, even selvedge. New technology will be applied on denim. Stretch will be on the warp and not the weft to guarantee comfort. The look will be of real jeans. I am talking of 13 or 14 ounce. Jeans will reflect a more mature concept of fashion. We are going back to a very nice time for our market.
