AG Jeans

Last updated

AG Jeans
Type Private
IndustryClothing
Founded2000;23 years ago (2000) in Downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Founders
Headquarters South Gate, California
Number of locations
16 retail stores
ProductsJeans
OwnerYul Ku
Number of employees
800 (2019)
Website agjeans.com

AG Adriano Goldschmied or AG Jeans is an American clothing company with a focus on denim apparel created with sustainable manufacturing methods. Founded in 2000 in Los Angeles, California, the company is owned by its co-founder Yul Ku, whose Koos Manufacturing previously produced jeans for several well-known brands. AG Jeans was also co-founded by Italian designer Adriano Goldschmied who left the company in 2004 and sold his share of the business, as well as his namesake brand, to Ku. The company has 17 retail stores across the United States including a location on Madison Avenue in New York opened in late 2020. Since 2010, AG Jeans has implemented a number of sustainability measures at its facilities including a water-filtration system that allows it to operate almost entirely on recycled water.

Contents

History

AG Jeans was founded in Downtown Los Angeles in 2000 by Italian designer Adriano Goldschmied and Korean-American jeans manufacturer Yul Ku. [1] The company was initially a collaboration between Goldschmied and Ku's Koos Manufacturing, a producer of denim apparel for several brands including Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Gap, J.Crew, and Lucky Brand. The company's apparel entered the market in September 2001. In 2004, Ku bought out Goldschmied for full ownership of AG, including the brand name. [1] [2]

The company experienced a decline in business from 2004 to 2008, with retailers Nordstrom and Anthropologie both stopping their purchases from AG. Several creative directors were hired to replace Goldschmied before the appointment of Ku's son, Samuel Ku, in 2008. He introduced the company's "boyfriend" style of jeans and implemented several changes, beginning a resurgence in the business. [2]

AG Jeans has focused on sustainability as its chief distinguishing feature as a brand since 2010. By 2014, its facilities began using energy-efficient cloth washers and upgraded to dryers that reused heat. In 2016, its headquarters were retrofitted with solar panels. In 2017, it upgraded its use of laser technology to distress jeans. [3] In 2019, the company installed a water-recycling system that reduced its water waste and allows it operate almost entirely on recycled water. [4]

In January 2015, AG Jeans collaborated with model and designer Alexa Chung to create a line of jeans. Chung and AG Jeans organized a number of debut parties in London, New York, and Los Angeles to celebrate the release of the line inspired by fashion of the 1960s and 1970s. [5]

In 2019, AG Jeans announced a 12-month partnership with Water For People, a nonprofit organization working towards increased access to water in developing countries. The brand released a collection of apparel in collaboration with Swiss contemporary artist Blanda and up to $100,000 of revenue generated from the collaboration donated to Water For People. [6] [7] [8]

In April 2020, AG Jeans donated $1 million to the L.A. County Response Fund setup by the California Community Foundation to help community clinics and hospitals in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] [10]

Operation

AG manufactures all of its products in-house—including cutting, sewing, and distressing. [2] With its main manufacturing facility headquartered in South Gate, California, [1] the company has other facilities and affiliates in Los Angeles and Mexico City. [11] AG Jeans also has 16 retail stores across the United States and another location on Madison Avenue in New York is expected to open in late 2020. [9] As of May 2019, the company employs approximately 550 people at its headquarters in South Gate and another 250 employees at its retail stores. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Strauss & Co.</span> American clothing company

Levi Strauss & Co. is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to open a West Coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business. Although the corporation is registered in Delaware, the company's corporate headquarters is located in Levi's Plaza in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diesel (company)</span> Italian retail clothing company

Diesel S.p.A. is an Italian retail clothing company, located in Breganze, Italy. It sells denim and other clothing, footwear, and accessories. The clothing line has two different brands: Diesel and Diesel Black Gold. There is also a line for children, called Diesel Kid. The company is known for its surreal advertising campaigns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JNCO</span> Los Angeles, California-based clothing company

JNCO, short for "Judge None Choose One", is a Los Angeles, California-based clothing company specializing in boys' and men's jeans. "JNCO was founded in 1985 by Moroccan-born, French-raised brothers Jacques Yaakov Revah and Haim Milo Revah." The brand gained recognition in the 1990s with its boys' ultra-wide straight legged denim jeans featuring elaborate pocket logos and a unique street look.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordache</span> American clothing, real estate and aviation company

Jordache Enterprises, Inc. is an American clothing company that markets apparel, including shirts, jeans, and outerwear. The brand is known for its designer jeans that were popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since the 2000s, Jordache has also diversified into real estate in the United States and other ventures in Israel. The brand name Jordache is a contraction of Joe, Ralph, David, and Avi Naccache (Nakash).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7 for All Mankind</span> American denim brand

7 For All Mankind is an American denim brand founded by Michael Glasser, Peter Koral, and Jerome Dahan in 2000 and headquartered in Vernon, California. It was purchased by the VF Corporation in 2007 and sold to Delta Galil Industries in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucky Brand Jeans</span> American denim company

Lucky Brand is an American denim company founded in Vernon, California in 1990 by Gene Montesano and Barry Perlman. Lucky also produces other apparel, including activewear, outerwear, T-shirts, and professional attire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acne Studios</span> Swedish fashion house

Acne Studios is a multidisciplinary luxury fashion house based in Stockholm, Sweden that specializes in men's and women's ready-to-wear fashion, footwear, accessories and denim. When founded in 1996, the label derived its name from the creative collective ACNE; initially an acronym for Associated Computer Nerd Enterprises and later a backronym of Ambition to Create Novel Expressions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G-Star Raw</span> Dutch designer clothing company

G-Star RAW is a Dutch designer clothing company, founded by Jos van Tilburg in Amsterdam in 1989. The brand specializes in making raw denim—an unwashed, untreated denim. G-Star is influenced by military clothing. Inspirations of their designs come from vintage military apparel from around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stüssy</span> American clothing brand and private company

Stüssy is an American privately held fashion house founded in the early 1980s by Shawn Stussy. It benefited from the surfwear trend originating in Orange County, California, but was later adopted by the skateboard and hip hop scenes.

Tommy Hilfiger B.V., formerly known as Tommy Hilfiger Corporation and Tommy Hilfiger Inc., is an American clothing brand, manufacturing apparel, footwear, accessories, fragrances and home furnishings. The company was founded in 1985, and the brand's merchandise is sold in department stores and over 2000 free-standing retail stores in 100 countries. In 2006, private equity firm Apax Partners acquired the company for approximately $1.6 billion. In March 2010, PVH Corp. bought the company. Daniel Grieder was appointed CEO in July 2014, while founder Tommy Hilfiger remains the company's principal designer, leading the design teams and overseeing the entire creative process. Global sales in retail through the brand were US$9.1 billion in 2022.

True Religion Brand Jeans is an American clothing company established in 2002 by Jeff Lubell and Kym Gold and is based in Vernon, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Lauren Corporation</span> American apparel, accessories and luxury goods company

Ralph Lauren Corporation is an American publicly traded fashion company that was founded in 1967 by American fashion designer Ralph Lauren. Headquartered in New York City, the company produces products ranging from the mid-range to the luxury segments. Ralph Lauren is known for marketing and distributing products in four categories: apparel, home, accessories, and fragrances. Known mostly for its flagship brand Polo Ralph Lauren, the company's brands include mid-range, sub-premium, and premium labels up to its highest priced luxury Purple label apparel. The company additionally owned Club Monaco from 1999 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arvind (company)</span> Indian textile company

Arvind Limited is a textile manufacturer and the flagship company of the Lalbhai Group. Its headquarters are in Naroda, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, and it has units at Santej. The company manufactures cotton shirting, denim, knits and bottomweight (khaki) fabrics. It has also recently ventured into technical textiles with its Advanced Materials Division in 2011. It is India's largest denim manufacturer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriano Goldschmied</span> Italian fashion designer

Adriano Goldschmied is an Italian fashion designer who focuses on denim jeans. He is known as "the Godfather of denim" and is the originator of "premium denim". The founder of Diesel, he also created Replay, Gap 1969, Agolde, Goldsign, and AG Adriano Goldschmied. Goldschmied is currently the owner of House of Gold, a creative textile company with the purpose of bringing innovative fabrics to the market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MUD Jeans</span> Sustainable and fair trade certified denim brand based in The Netherlands

MUD Jeans is a denim brand based in the Netherlands that specializes in sustainable denim products.

Danielle Bernstein is an American fashion designer and the founder of the fashion blog and brand WeWoreWhat, which she started when she was a sophomore in college. She has collaborated with numerous brands and has launched her own fashion lines.

DL1961 is a global premium denim brand that is carried in hundreds of stores. The brand was founded in 2008 using XFIT LYCRA, a fabric it has patented. XFIT is a cotton-wrapped Lycra thread intertwined with polyester made by DL parent company ADM Denim, which was founded by Faisal and Meliha Ahmed. The company uses an eco-friendly manufacturing process that it introduced in 2013 to use less water, waste, and dye. The brand has a maternity line.

Fashion Nova is an American fast fashion retail company. The company primarily operates online, but it also has five brick-and-mortar locations. Fashion Nova is known to use affiliate marketing, particularly on Instagram. Models, celebrities, and other customers receive payments or free clothing in exchange for generating publicity about the company.

Still Here is an American fashion brand, based in New York City that designs and sells clothing. The company is known for its vintage-inspired denim jeans. The brand was first popularized by celebrities Hailey Bieber, Emma Chamberlain and Chiara Ferragni.

Scott Morrison is an American designer and entrepreneur. He is best known for pioneering premium denim in America and as the founder of Paper Denim & Cloth, Earnest Sewn and 3x1. He also served as the CEO/Creative Director for Japanese designer clothing company Evisu.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hyland, Alexa (March 14, 2011). "Yul Ku: In His Jeans". Los Angeles Business Journal. Archived from the original on March 19, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 White, Ronald D. (October 23, 2011). "A Perfect Fit". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  3. ↑ Lajiness, Laura (January 24, 2020). "AG". POPSUGAR Fashion. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  4. ↑ Marlowe, Rachel (April 9, 2019). "A New Denim Collaboration Puts Water Conservation in the Spotlight". Vogue. Archived from the original on November 29, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  5. ↑ McCarthy, Lauren (January 21, 2015). "Alexa Chung Celebrates Collaboration for AG Jeans". WWD. Archived from the original on January 24, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  6. ↑ Igneri, Jenna (April 12, 2019). "This Denim Collaboration Is Bringing Clean Water To Those In Need". Nylon. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  7. ↑ Davidson, Emma Elizabeth (May 1, 2019). "LA denim label AG Jeans is striving for a more sustainable future". Dazed. Archived from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  8. ↑ Hawkins, Laura (April 11, 2019). "AG unveils sustainable water-saving denim technology". Wallpaper*. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Moore, Booth (April 7, 2020). "California Brands Donate Funds to Coronavirus Fight". WWD. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  10. ↑ Mau, Dhani (April 6, 2020). "AG Jeans Donates $1 Million to Covid-19 Relief in Los Angeles". Fashionista. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  11. ↑ Anyanwu, Obi (September 5, 2019). "AG Jeans Debuts First Recycled Water Collection for Spring 2020". WWD. Archived from the original on September 6, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  12. ↑ Hamanaka, Kari (May 28, 2019). "At AG Jeans, Quality Reigns Supreme". WWD. Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.