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In the wake of the controversial yet commercially successful Sydney Sweeney denim campaign put forth by American Eagle, as well as the less-talked-about yet also notable Levi's collab with Beyoncé, it appears that "what's old is new again" in the realm of fashion as Amazon launches an Essentials lineup of denim apparel in advance of its Prime Big Deal Days event, slated to run Oct. 8-Oct. 9.
Amazon is aiming squarely at the up-and-coming Gen Z demographic this time around, tapping influencers from that age cohort in Kate Bartlett and her best friend, Luca Mornet. While the pair aren't necessarily household names, they do have some prestige in the fashion influencer space, as Life & Style's Lauren Schuster outlined.
"The pair attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) from 2019 to 2023, where they both began to gain a following from posting content about fashion and their lives as college students in NYC. They are now New York Fashion Week regulars, attending designer shows and capturing the experience for their followers online," Schuster wrote.
"Bartlett cemented herself as a top TikTok fashion influencer when she reached a million followers on the platform back in 2022. She now sits at 1.5 million followers on TikTok as she continues to share her life in the world of fashion, and now her life as a fashion graduate student at NYU," she added.
Amazon Essentials Denim: Trend-Chasing or Long-Term Affordability and Style?
Amazon announced the launch of the Essentials denim lineup on Instagram, via its AmazonFashion account, as well as via Bartlett and Mornet's social media profiles — in addition to a mention within the lede of a Sept. 16 press release tied to its Prime Big Deal Days sale.
And with Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma recently announcing that "jeans are the hottest trade in the retail world," it may make simple business sense for Amazon to lean in on the emerging trend.
DiPalma quoted Bryant University professor of marketing Sharmin Attaran on the subject.
"Denim is having a moment. Retailers are not … following it, but they're amplifying it," he began.
"This a different, slower time, and that really reset expectations for comfort now that we're back in offices and back to our lives, classroom, social spaces. Denim returning is a way to kind of look put together," he added.
The financials seem to back that claim, with DiPalma citing Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group as saying that the U.S. denim market was projected to grow by mid single digits in the years to come.
"Levi Strauss CFO Harmit Singh told a Goldman Sachs conference this week that the denim market is a $100 billion global opportunity," DiPalma added, also noting that Target had seen women's denim sales surge by 28% during its most recent quarter.