Why Those Jeans Cost $300

Thanks to the recession, premium denim comes at a lower premium

(NEWSER) - If you couldn't afford a pair of "premium jeans" last year, maybe you can now. Though the basic components of jeans haven't changed in decades, prices skyrocketed early in the decade—but thanks to the recession, designer denim that might have gone for more than $300 two years ago is now priced in the $200 range. "It was all just a fad," one exec tells the New York Times . More»

But for about a quarter of the price

(NEWSER) - Gap is taking on the reigning kings of designer denim with its new jeans revamp in an effort “to reinvent Gap as a place of authority on denim,” the company's president says. Gone are the old designs—all of them. In their place are six new styles that include features normally seen on more expensive duds—think $200; Gap’s run $59.50. Was the reboot successful? Fortune’s Suzanne Kapner thinks so. More»

Jeans are back in the spotlight, but how much is too much?

(NEWSER) - Thanks in part to the recession, denim is all the rage—but the growing tendency to layer denim on denim (on, sometimes, even more denim) might be too much. “It can look silly, too contrived,” a video producer tells the Wall Street Journal . Nonetheless, the look is everywhere, from Jessica Biel wearing a denim jacket over a denim vest on the cover of Vogue, to the denim trench coats and shirt dresses for sale at Banana Republic. More»

Designer gives butt a lift and fly a boost

(NEWSER) - Good news for the flat-bottomed: Calvin Klein’s Body jeans do for your lower half what a push-up bra does for your upper half, the New York Post reports—and both men and women can get a lift from the new line. The ladies get a rounder, more flattering look for their bums, and men enjoy a larger-looking fly area. The miracle workers will set you back $79.50. More»

(NEWSER) - Across America, men, women, and children are wearing the same pants: jeans. Not only a sartorial crime, the trend is an “obnoxious misuse of freedom,” rails George Will of the Washington Post. Levi Strauss set out to make tough pants for 49ers who spent all day in the mud, and “it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags into golf carts to go around dressed for driving steers.” More»