A visit with Marketing Manager, Kim Harlan at the Red Engine Jeans booth.
Timestamp: March 21, 2007 at the Design Suites, behind the tents at LA Fashion Week, Smashbox Studios, Culver City, CA.
By Vivian G. Kelly
Photographs courtesy of Red Engine Jeans
The Design Suites were a most welcome addition to LA's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week this season. The mini tent housed a number of accessory, beauty and fashion designers most notably: La Chica Chic [Brazilian handbags], Mark Nason [luxury rock and roll boots], Rene Furterer [French haircare products] Crimes and Misdemeanors [sixties’ inspired dresses with a modern twist] and RED ENGINE JEANS.
There are so many designer jeans lines today that it’s hard to find a point of differentiation between them. The Red Engine Jeans company caught my interest because in a time where it seems everything is made in China [or Italy or Turkey, if you're lucky] these designer jeans are actually made in LA. They are conceived, created, cut, sewn and washed entirely in LA.
Red Engine is also all in the family. Marketing Manager, Kim Harlan, who took us through the line, has a sister who is married to the Company’s owner, Jim Boldes. The latter was at Guess Jeans in their eighties’ heyday, when the ankle zip skinny jean was in every fashion minded girl’s closet. He’s taken some of the Guess sass and sexiness and applied it to Red Engine; making them a great option for women ages fourteen to fifty+.
The first piece to catch my eye was their 100% Italian cotton denim version of the Bermuda short [$130] in a relaxed slouchy boyfriend fit. It is the only pair on the line without stretch. With the exception of the Bermudas, every item on the line has 2% stretch fibers wrapped in cotton.
In case you thought designer denims were over, they’re not.
Says Ms. Harlan, “This is an interesting transition time for denim, the pendulum is going back to somewhere between the totally distressed jeans of two years ago and last year’s dark denim.
The bottom line is as follows; you need five basics in your closet.
1. A basic five pocket [the coin pocket counts as one pocket]
2. A low-rise boot cut
3. The straight leg
4. The skinny
5. The Ankle length. Thanks to former Guess-er, Jim Boldes, what is old is new again.
I added the new #135 jean, which is their latest model to my list. What’s special is the heavy silver and bronze metallic heavy rope thread [which is six times thicker than your average jean thread] rope-stitched on the pockets and on the upper outer seam.
Before leaving, Ms. Harlan generously shared some valuable jean sizing tips. Someday, she’ll do a video, she says.
In the meantime, her jean tips.
*Jean Sizing Tips*
- Begin by disregarding the size tab
- Take three pair into the dressing room and start with the smallest one.
- Buy the ones that feel a little too tight. 15 minutes later, they’ll fit just right.
After road-testing a pair of 26-inchers, I’m pleased to report that she’s absolutely right. The 27” stretch jeans I was previously wearing have been moved to the back of my closet.