Levi’s Lets Loose With New Line

Long after its competitors recognized the look’s potential, Levi Strauss & Co. is entering the baggy jeans market in an attempt to lure back the urban youth it lost to other high-fashion retailers. The San Francisco-based jeans retailer is the latest to offer the wide-leg look that began with young inner-city youths and spread as a fashion trend. “It’s kind of a skateboarding look,” Levi spokeswoman Jill Lynch said Thursday, when the company introduced its fall marketing campaign in New York. The jeans will cost about $34 a pair and arrive in most major department stores this week. Levi’s is playing catch-up with big-name fashion brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren.

“The really big, baggy oversized cartoony silhouette is over with,” Lynch said. “Kids are telling us that they want something closer to the body but still loose.”