California Apparel News

Los Angeles–based denim designer Mik Serfontaine made some inroads last season with his Easy Rider jeans for women. He got them on Britney Spears and into key accounts, including Fred Segal Hollywood Trading Co. in Santa Monica. Now the designer is taking a dive into the men’s market—perhaps with some trepidation.

After all, men’s fashion denim has not yet been fully embraced by hard-sell male consumers and has not been the cash cow that the women’s market has proved to be. While Sean John and other urban brands have made some headway with loose-fit jeans, the tighter and lower-cut menswear counterpar ts of Frankie B., Paper Denim and Cloth and Energie are just getting of f the ground.

Serfontaine is taking what he considers to be a masculine, technical approach with unique colorations and finishes. The cuts in the Serfontaine Men line are not as low as those of his Easy Rider women’s jeans and are aimed at a broader market.

Serfontaine is offering his men’s jeans in three body types and seven styles, including the Metropolis city jean, which has an exposed coin pocket, and the Mezzanine and Freebird bell-bottom looks. Wholesale price points for the jeans range from $49 to $59, and jackets and tops cost up to $65 wholesale. The line is made in California with fabrics from mills in North Carolina and Japan.

“It’s a niche item and sophisticated enough to go beyond the rock ’n’ roll customer,” said the designer, speaking from his loft in downtown Los Angeles’ Fashion District.

According to Serfontaine, a typical customer could be “somewhere between a Steven Tyler and Lenny Kravitz” or a 35- year-old businessman who plays it casual on nights and weekends.

The designer is using organic washes with some styles to offer a natural, worn look as an option to the whiskered effect created by chemicals. He is also using rope stitching, flat-busted seams and single needlework. The accent is on details.

“We’re securing patents on every process,” he said.

Serfontaine honed his eye for detail during his years dealing in vintage denim—and through having spent much of his earlier career as a drummer on the club circuit, which gave him perspective on what young men are looking for in jeans. It comes down to a coolness factor, he said.

“It’s always about fit with the girls,” he noted. “With the guys, it has to be cool. We can’t fake it. We have to be passionate, or we won’t survive. These jeans are for the man who understands that fashion and masculinity are not mutually exclusive concepts.”

Since many women’s fashion brands, such as Frankie B., are just starting to ship their men’s lines, the jury is still out on men’s fashion denim.

“I think the key will be for guys to get reaction from women, to go shopping with their girlfriends so they can get the feedback,” said Guy Blews, Frankie B.’s menswear rep in Los Angeles. “I wear them, and I get stopped all the time.”

“The thing is that denim unto itself doesn’t need fashion to survive,” Serfontaine said.

For information, call (917) 292-7070. —Robert McAllister