Levi’s® made & crafted™ x off white

Retailer Research

High Street Retailer

X Designer or Celebrity

"PHASE 1"

COLLABORATIONS

Celebrity/designer collaboration strategy is one of the most popular and effective marketing strategies to attract audience’s attention. A successful collaboration can freshen up a brand’s perceived image, and allow it to become more on trend and uplifting. (Scharf, 2013) In addition, it also allows the company to have navigate through a less familiar market by joining forces with a company that understands a given demographic well (Scharf, 2013), which in turns allows the brand to reach a wider consumer base than they had previously been able to (Scharf, 2013).

"BENEFITS"

of designer/celebrity collaborations from academic perspective

On the other hand, both the brand and designer/celebrity will enjoy a “double exposure” while the partnership is experiencing high publicity (Scharf, 2013).

This gives an opportunity for the brand to personify the brand. Once a collaboration is launched, the public will connect the brand with the celebrity/designer, which the characteristics and qualities of the celebrity automatically get transferred to the brand. (Mello, 2014) Therefore, if the right celebrity matches with right brand, the public will generate a positive image towards the brand and builds trust and credibility for your brand (Mello, 2014).

TARGET AUDIENCE

CUSTOMER VALUES

BRAND DESCRIPTION

Age: 20 - 50 Male & Female Fashion Conscious Young Professionals, students Middle Class

American Sprit Familiarity Self expression Effortless cool

Levi's is one of the world largest brandname apparel companies. It is a global leader in jeans-wear. Their products are distributed in more than 110 countries among some chain retailers, department stores and online sites.

BRAND VALUES Empathy

Integrity

WALKING IN OTHER PEOPLE’S SHOES

DOING THE RIGHT THING

"Empathy begins with paying close attention to the world around us.

We listen and respond to the needs of our customers, employees and other stakeholders."

"Integrity means doing right by our employees, brands, company and society as a whole. Ethical conduct and social responsibility characterize our way of doing business."

Originality

Courage

BEING AUTHENTIC AND INNOVATIVE

STANDING UP FOR WHAT WE BELIEVE

"The pioneering spirit that started in 1873 with the very first pair of blue jeans still permeates all aspects of our business.

Through innovative products and practices, we break the mold."

"It takes courage to be great. Courage is the willingness to tell the truth and to challenge hierarchy, accepted practice and conventional wisdom. It means standing by our convictions and acting on our beliefs."

LEVISSTRAUSS.COM

LEVI’S® MADE & CRAFTED™ X OFF-WHITE C/O VIRGIL ABLOH™

Over 140 years ago, Levi Strauss invented a simple pair of blue jeans that would forever change the way America, and the rest of the world, dressed.

LEVI’S® MADE & CRAFTED™

LEVISSTRAUSS.COM

Levi’s® Made & Crafted® Jeans build on this legacy by designing tomorrow’s classics using today’s best materials and construction techniques.

LEVI’S® MADE & CRAFTED™

LEVISSTRAUSS.COM

LEVI’S® MADE & CRAFTED™ X OFF-WHITE C/O VIRGIL ABLOH™

The collaboration between Levi’s Made & Crafted and Off-white commenced in Fall/Winter 2016 upon a suggestion made by an intern who worked at Levis’ the previous year. This collaboration provided for the meeting of vintage and iconic denim with contemporary and bold street style.

Cheung said that Levi’s Made & Crafted allowed a little more room to work and play with in the fashion area. He also said that “I like to think of it as the Levi’s take on luxury. Think luxury with a small ‘L’. For example, take a pair of Levi’s Made & Crafted jeans and turn them inside out. You’ll see how beautifully clean the construction is compared to other premium jeans (Babcock, 2016).” While the Levi’s side explain how Levi’s Made & Crafted brand is more innovative, Virgil Abloh has also given his opinion on this collaboration, “Levi’s Made & Crafted has an eye towards the future without resting its laurels on the past.

The team working on Made & Crafted is very smart and insightful (Babcock, 2016).”

Although Levi’s is one of the leading fashion companies worldwide, the collaboration with Off-white was formed with Levi's Made & Crafted instead of the classic main Levi’s brand. Highsnobiety interviewed Johnathan Cheung—Levi’s Head of Design and Virgil Abloh —designer of OFF-WHITE to talk about the reason why Levi’s Mad & Crafted is involved in this collaboration (Babcock, 2016).

Originally, the collaboration was intended to focus on women garments, but as it appeared to be comprising Abloh’s gender-neutral design approach (Ls&co. unzipped team, 2016), it has changed his approach and is now reaching a wider range of target customer base. The main goals for this collaboration was not only to maintain the relevancy of Levi’s, a brand that has survived nearly a century-and-a-half, but also to demonstrate that Levi’s can evolve and adapt to changes in the fashion industry, such as splicing classic jeans and adding contrasting colours to give a refreshing and modern edge (Ls&co. Unzipped team, 2016).

V i r g i l

A b l o h

“to offer up some new silhouettes of denim that complement the history but also lead to a new direction forward.�

"PRODUCT

"RANGE"

There are 11 silhouettes in this first collection of the Levi’s Made & Crafted x Offwhite. Each and every piece reflects the vision of a shared aesthetic rooted in eccentric, thoughtful designs with streetwear as a visual language (Ls&co.

Unzipped team, 2016). The garments were inspired by the late 80’s – 90’s, grunge revisited, but in an artisanal way (Babcock, 2016). Among these 11 silhouettes, there are only three types of clothing: denim jacket, jeans and coat, and they all share two features–huge zips and bold colour.

Unsurprisingly, the brand’s signature 501 jeans are part of this this collection. 6 of the 11 garments are unisex jeans that were inspired by the classic 501 shape (Anderson, 2016). As Levi’s stresses the importance of the details, one can find exquisite details on all of its pieces upon close examination. The signature red Levi’s tab sealed on the jeans is featured in this collaboration with a slight twist. In every pair of Levi’s Made & Crafted x Off-white jeans, the tab is double-sided with Off-white stripes at the back, which you will not notice unless you flip it over (Babcock, 2016).

Denim jacket is another iconic item from Levi’s. Virgil Abloh has utilized his architectural-DJ background and gave a new definition for denim jackets. The heated trend of oversized items can be seen on those denim jackets where all of them has wide and long sleeves featuring frayed edges, one of them was even designed to be a body-long coat with a furry hood. The unique and distinctive feature about this collection is that they embody a remix of modern, contrasting colour, and eye-catching design (LS&CO. UNZIPPED TEAM, 2016).

Levi’s has always seek to promote their brand with latest and most innovative marketing strategies, including promotional videos, slogans, music, design competitions, and also the social media. While Levi’s (the main brand) uses a wide range of popular promotional strategies, its subbrand Levi’s Made & Craft took a subdued root in terms of marketing.

marketing communication

This sub-brand focuses more on pushing the creative boundaries and creating “tomorrow’s classics” instead of the following Levi’s iconic 501s. It puts huge emphasis on the quality of craftsmanship, fabrics, yarns and materials that they use (Owen, 2014). It seeks to represent the seamless blend of Levi’s history and modern style (Trotman, 2017).

As a result, the Levi’s Made & Craft brand is more interested in doing innovative and artistic collaboration projects to promote its brand identity. The SS14 look book produced in partnership with New York surf mag ‘Wax’ has successfully attracted much attention from within and outside the industry.

Its rich editorial content alongside with modest imagery of Levi’s M&C’s new interwoven material created an unique blend of art, fashion and textiles (Owen, 2014).

In addition, the denim brand has also collaborated with an art publication ‘The Thing Quarterly’ to create a worldwide project called “The Moment to Moment” in 2013. This project was inspired by visual artist Dan Graham’s interventions from the 1960s. He was famous for the way he merged art pieces in daily life. He purchased advertising space in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Arts Magazine in order to insert his work (THE THING Quarterly, 2013). This collaboration was successfully held in different cities around the world and attracted the public to experiment artworks (Owen, 2014).

Add a little bit of body text

Retaining Proposition

Levi’s is a high street brand that specialized in denim, whereas Off-white is a high-end street wear brand that provides modern and trendy apparel. It was a clever decision to choose Levi’s Made and Crafted over Levi’s as a partner for this collaboration, because Levi’s M&C has more resources and is focused on doing collaborations with different artists and designers. Besides, it also aims to create “tomorrow’s classics”, which is therefore more suitable in providing the right materials, ideas and support for this collaboration.

The target customers for Levi’s M&C are young people who are passionate about modern fashion style yet also interested in the legacy of the denim pioneer. They are also more artistic and more willing to try new trends and style.

Similarly, despite Off-white targets the luxury market, both brands’ target customers are quite related.

In terms of the actual design and materials, this collaboration has equally represented both denim element and contemporary fashion components. Unquestionably, oversized style is now the most heated trend in the streetwear. By introduced this trend to the denim fabric, it tied up heritage and current fashion.

Moreover, apart from the cutting of the silhouettes, you can also find contemporary elements in the details and the use of colour in these 11 garments. One of the trucker jackets featured a signature Off-white yellow that covers the entire left sleeve.

Another pair of jeans also featured that colour on both of the calves’ area. The zippers are another notable feature in this collaboration. Apart from the use of big hole as the zipper ring, these zippers are nothing like normal zipper which usually hide under fabric, they are huge and are placed on noticeable areas with contrasting white colour comparing to the blue of the denim. Unlike ordinary Levi’s red tap on the pockets of the back of jeans or on the chest area of trucker jacket, the Off-white Levi’s taps are in navy blue with Levi’s logo in the front and Off-white signature stripes at the back.

The colour scheme for this collection consist of only yellow, white and denim blue. Off-white and Levi’s Made and Crafted have successfully delivered a spectacular example of combining and brightening both brands’ identity in a collaboration.