Levi’s® 501® Jean Goes Global With New Look

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

NEWS RELEASE

Levi’s® 501® Jean Goes Global With New Look

The world’s most worn, best-loved jean – the ultimate straight leg, button-fly Levi’s® 501® jean – gets an updated look and is set for a global launch this August.

Based on the original 1947 501® cut, the overall fit has also been made youthful with a slimmer and straighter cut – all achieved without losing the comfort that comes with wearing a pair of 501® jeans. Levi’s® 501® jeans will be introduced in new vintage-inspired finishes ranging from minimally – to mid-worn and in mid to dark tones.

Driving support for this global launch is a fully integrated campaign titled ‘Levi’s® 501® Jeans - Live Unbuttoned’. Conceptualized by agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) the campaign includes a series of TV commercials, print and outdoor ads, public relations, retail windows set-ups and in-store point-of-sale materials.

TVC’s
Levi Strauss (Australia) will spear-head their campaign from September via National pay TV launching with the fourth TV commercial in the series titled ‘Secrets and Lies’. The advertisement features dialogue between two characters confessing their fibs as they unbutton their Levi’s® 501® jeans. The baring of truths, along with the physical unbuttoning of their jeans, captures the provoking themes of self-expression and unrestrained behavior from the campaign. This TVC is shot by Jeff Labbe, whose works have accumulated him the recognition of a Best Director title in the First Boards Competition in 2006. He has worked on brands like Nike, Levi’s®, Adidas, Playstation, Fox Sports and most recently, Ray Ban, which will be featured at Sundance this year.

Print Ads
The man tasked with defining the look of the Levi’s® 501® campaign prints is Japanese-Italian fashion director Nicola Formichetti, known to renowned stylists and fashion insiders for his sophisticated understanding of global youth culture and his ability to capture the essence of contemporary cool, distilling it into arresting images for fashion bibles such as Dazed and Confused, V, Another Man, Arena Homme + and Vogue Hommes Japan.

Under his direction, the prints for the campaign are effortlessly sensual shots of Josh Beech, charismatic 22-year-old lead singer of British alternative rock band, Snish. Shot by New York-based photographer David Vasiljevic, the campaign is a composite of striking, stripped down black-and-white portraits of Josh Beech. He is pictured wearing 501® jeans and a tee, or with just intricate tattoo work – the name of his band on a wrist, a pair of eyes on the neck, and three stars on the forearm – on his naked skin.

Discovered at a Shoreditch music festival last September by Models 1 scout Sherrill Smith, London-born Josh Beech is an unexpected rising star in fashion photography - he shot the Levi's® 501® jeans Fall/Holiday 2008 Europe campaign, and was chosen by Hedi Slimane for the cover of the first issue of Vogue Homme international signed by Carine Roitfeld in the same week.

Full page Ads will run in fashion & music publications across Australia & New Zealand – Vice, FHM, RollingStone, Our People, Pulp, Remix and Real Groove.

Levi’s® Button Covers
In conjunction with the Levi’s® 501® “Live Unbuttoned” campaign, the Levi’s® brand is set to redefine once again how jeans will be worn with the introduction of a first-of-a-kind innovation – jean button covers. These illustrated jean button covers will definitely add loads of fun for all wearers of the 501® jeans. Button covers not only enable the customization of 501® jeans, but provides the 501® jean wearer with an avenue of expression through the provocative, cool, fun and fresh illustrations/graphics on the button covers. The Levi’s® 501® jean, along with Levi’s® jean button covers, will leave the jean wearer exuding much attitude and confidence!

The new Levi’s® 501® jean will be available in Australia & New Zealand from mid August.

ENDS

About The Levi’s® Brand
Invented in 1873 by Levi Strauss & Co., Levi’s® Jeans are the original, authentic jeans. The Levi’s® brand offers the widest range of great fitting jeans on the market and are the most widely recognised and often imitated products in the history of apparel. Levi’s® Jeans have captured the attention, imagination and loyalty of generations of diverse individuals in more than 110 countries around the world and continue to do so today through more than 150 years of jeanswear innovation.

© Scoop Media