Fillers, filters, fitness—they all make it impossible to distinguish age nowadays. Someone’s technological capabilities, on the other hand, can serve as the proverbial proof in the pudding.
For instance, it’s easier for me to order my 50-something parents an Uber, even when I’m 5,000 miles and two time zones away, than it is to explain how to download the app onto their own phones. But even as a 30-something millennial, I have my own ill-fated encounters with technology. I’ve never mastered how to set “out of office” messages on my email. Pigs will fly before I use my phone for contactless payments. And much to the dismay of the 20-something creatives who put this magazine together, I have a long way to go with InDesign.
A person’s jeans preference can also say a lot about their age despite denim’s timeless appeal to both the young and young at heart. This issue explores the generational aspects of designing and shopping for denim.
In “Middle Ground” (pg. 36), hear from executives at NYDJ and Jen7 on how they balance trends with comfort, stretch and versatility for women 40 and up. In “Science of Stretch” (pg. 52) discover how fiber and fabric mills are working to make stretch technologies better for the planet.
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Meet the youngest generation in “A+” (pg. 19), which considers how technology, inclusivity and activism will shape Generation Alpha into a unique consumer demographic that brands and retailers need to prepare for right now. In “Indigo Children” (pg. 22) kids’ denim brands like DL1961 and OshKosh B’Gosh share how school closures and the overall casualization of fashion have impacted their businesses.
Meanwhile, Gen Z is ditching traditional retail altogether to cop preowned jeans from stores like Plato’s Closet. In “Thrifty & Thrifting” (pg. 32), Gen Z consumers explain why they prefer to buy secondhand fashion, what they consider to be a sustainable jean and how much they’re willing to pay for one.
Their answers may be a wakeup call for an industry challenged by rising production costs and extreme weather, which we put under the microscope in “Under Water” (pg. 60) and “Energy Agony” (pg. 64).
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