Designer Jeans
JEAN GENIUS
*He’s the man responsible for the world’s most flattering jeans— and, naturally, sales are soaring.
words by > Kristin Harmel
Robin Chretien has been obsessed with jeans for as long as he can remember. While growing up in Grenoble, France, in the ’60s and ’70s, the son of a pilot and a designer, was fascinated by his country’s haute couture movement—but more so with images from America beaming into his life in the French Alps.
“As a kid I must have watched The Wild One and Easy Rider hundreds of times,” says the now 49-year-old Chretien. “For me, growing up was always about motorcycles, denim jeans and leather jackets.”
It makes sense, then, that with the combined influences of his creative mother, the prevailing fashions in France and, of course, the très cool denim-branded Americanism showing up in his cinematic favorites, Chretien’s first job would be in the fashion industry—and that his focus would immediately be on denim.
“I started in the business at sixteen years old,” says Chretien, currently one of the leading denim designers in the United States and the head of Robin’s Jean Company, his own fledgling line of popular designer jeans that are selling out at the hottest boutiques in the country. “A couple of years later, I was opening fourteen stores for a large company, involved with the merchandising, staffing, buying and sales.”
But Chretien had always wanted to do more than handle the business side of clothing. Fascinated with the designs of the world’s best denim companies in the 1970s, he started designing his own denim brand in his twenties, and he knew immediately that he had found his passion. His jeans were carried in the fourteen stores he worked for, but he wanted more.
“It was during my first visit to Los Angeles in 1981 that I fell in love with the United States,” he says. “I promised myself that I would return to start my own denim brand there, and build a new life.”
But it was another 15 years before Chretien made the move across the Atlantic, just in time to be a part of the birth of the designer denim movement that has been sweeping the nation for the past several years. Th e Los Angeles-based Chretien started his American career at denim giant Blue Cult as a designer and head of product development.
In 2002, Chretien parted with Blue Cult and helped start a new line: Hudson Jeans. As the only designer in the company, as well as the manager of all product development, he was the brains behind the brand that quickly became a celebrity favorite. His 170 SD style, with their signature back pocket flap, became a huge success. Later, Chretien gave the jean a longer inseam and dubbed it the Super Model, and sales went through the roof.
It was during this time that the designer denim craze was at its height, and Hudson was one of the leaders in the crowded industry. Jeans had begun regularly selling for between $170 and $350.
“People want novelty,” Chretien explains. “Th e market demands a level of quality, and the cost of giving people what they want and producing in the United States drives the price to these levels. Also, producing a new collection every three months and bringing it to the people is no simple task.”
Chretien soon realized that he would never reach his full potential with Hudson, a company that wasn’t his. So he left to start his own.
“You live and learn and have to move on,” he says. “So, rather than waste time, I started Robin’s Jean Company.” Th at was in late 2004.
By January 2005, Chretien had completely reinvented his take on denim and had released the first pair of jeans from his new line. Th ey were an immediate hit with the many store owners who had been familiar with Chretien’s work at Hudson.
“As with anything in any industry, experience is a door opener,” says Julie Arrendale Sims, the co-owner of Atlanta-based Blue Genes denim boutique (www.shopbluegenes.com), which carries both Robin’s Jeans and Hudson Jeans. “We had a great relationship with Robin from his years as a designer for Hudson, so we trusted him and we were confident that his denim line would be a success in our store. Our thoughts proved to be true. Within the first week of the denim hitting the shelves, we had to place a re-order.”
With their signature embroidered wings logo (stitched either prominently across the back of the jeans, or more subtly on the back pockets or pocket flaps), slim silhouette, universally flattering fit and unique wash techniques, Robin’s Jeans have gathered steam at unprecedented rates.
Th e company’s sales from the first quarter of 2006 were two-and-a-half times higher than sales from the entire previous year.
On top of that, Robin’s Jean Company started with 900 square feet of space and has expanded more than tenfold in less than two years, to an incredible 12,000 square feet, where Chretien sources and tests fabric, supervises in-house wash techniques and does all his designing.
So what’s the secret to his already massive—and still growing—success?
“Th ey are universally flattering,” Sims says. “He uses mostly stretch fabrics, which are comfortable and help the denim to hold its shape. In the back of the jean, the rise is a little higher, which helps to minimize the gapping problem. Also, the pocket size and placement lift s flatter every girl’s behind.”
Chretien says that he can’t give away the secret of how his jeans manage to flatter virtually any body shape. But he says it’s all about paying attention to the intricacies of the human form.
“It’s about proportion and the placement of each detail, and understanding how the body moves,” he says. “I’m always happy to hear that people love the jeans I make, but it always comes down to the fit. It doesn’t matter how much you embellish a pair of jeans. Th ey have to be flattering and sexy.
“Of course I pay attention to trends, but not to just chase them,” he continues. “I am always thinking about new styles and looks. Sometimes I have to stop my car to sketch a new silhouette or detail. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to draw an idea that I was just dreaming about.”
Chretien is also very close to his staff , each of whom he meets with each morning to discuss ideas, answer questions and give guidance for the day.
“I give 110 percent of myself every day,” Chretien says. “I surround myself with the people that I love and care for, and get all of that back in return.”
Chretien is also fortunate in that his family is not only supportive of his business, but also a big part of it. His twins, Chloe and Marie-Lou, 17, model for the line’s advertising campaign.
“My life is a mix of family and work,” Chretien says. “I never stop thinking about either of them. As for my daughters, they are very beautiful girls and embody the spirit of the Robin’s Jean Company, so it’s perfect. Plus, they are twins, so it’s twice as nice!”