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来源How Can Jeans Cost $300?
译者幸福的微笑
How Can Jeans Cost $300?
牛仔裤，你凭什么卖300美元？
Shoppers Shell Out More for Designer Denim, Lured by Signature Details, 'Made in America'
独特的设计 + 出色的细节 + “美国制造”= 让购物者掏更多的钱
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
作者：CHRISTINA BINKLEY
Los Angeles
发自洛杉矶
It is an enduring mystery to anyone reared on $50 Levi's: How can a pair of jeans cost as much as the Phantom, the new look from True Religion that will be priced as high as $375?
穿着价值50美元的李维斯牛仔的人听到一条 TrueReligion 牌的新款“魅影”牛仔裤标价375美元时，心中定会一阵迷茫：这可能吗？是幻觉吧？凭什么它卖这么贵？
The answer can be found here in Los Angeles, in the global capital of so-called premium denim—one of the few areas of fashion that remains largely American-made. An industrial zone here near the city's center is home to True Religion, J Brand, Seven For All Mankind and other pricey denim brands that have elevated what was once workman's togs to a luxury industry all its own.
答案就在洛杉矶，这个在世界上有着“超级牛仔之都”美誉的城市——这里大部分的时尚产品仍旧是“美国制造”。 TrueReligion 的生产基地就在离市中心不远的一个工业区里，JBrand 、7ForAllMankind 等好几个知名的牛仔品牌也都集中在这里。在它们的手中，旧时工人所穿着的老土套装摇身一变，成为奢侈品行业中不可或缺的一员。
This is a rarefied segment of the denim business. Americans bought $13.8 billion of men's and women's jeans in the year ended April 30, according to market-research firm NPD Group. But only about 1% of jeans sold in the U.S. over that year cost more than $50.
对于牛仔成衣行业来说，这个地方是少有的特例。据美国市场研究公司NPD集团（NationalPurchase Diary）的统计，截至2011年4月30日，美国人共购买了价值13.8亿美元的男式及女式牛仔裤，但在美国销售出去的牛仔裤中，只有1%的成本是超过50美元的。
The prices of "premium" jeans—industry jargon for luxury-priced denim—appear to be edging slightly upward after a downturn following the financial crisis. Right now, J Brand's Maria women's jeans can sell for $226. Men's Aidan jeans from Seven For All Mankind cost $225. Prices for Gucci jeans range from $495 to $665. Premium jeans are made in the U.S., which is a big part of their allure.
在行业术语中，那些价格高昂的牛仔成衣被称为——“超级牛仔”（premium jeans），随着金融危机逐渐转好，它们的价格开始轻微上扬。目前，JBrand的“玛丽亚”系列女式牛仔卖价226美元。7ForAllMankind 的“亚当”系列男式牛仔卖价225美元，Gucci的牛仔更是卖到了495-665美元。这些超级牛仔都是“美国制造”，这也正是它们最大的诱惑所在。
Gloria Vanderbilt and Calvin Klein introduced the world to so-called designer jeans decades ago, and what began as a relatively small trend endured. Jeans are worn everywhere from the office to the opera these days. But there is a less-than-subtle caste system for denim: A pair of "Sevens," as some call jeans from Seven For All Mankind, conveys a statement about one's fashion savoir faire (and income) that less expensive brands don't.
几十年前，GloriaVanderbilt 与 CalvinKlein 让世界知道了什么叫设计师独特设计的名牌牛仔，并渐渐形成一个相对小众的流行趋势。今天，从办公室到歌剧院，牛仔裤可谓随处可见。但在牛仔裤中，存在着一个微妙的等级制度，比如说：一条7（7ForAllMankind 的简称）牛仔，就体现了廉价品牌牛仔所表达不出的个人时尚品味（或个人财富）。
图片说明： TrueReligion“魅影”系列牛仔裤成本晒单。
It costs about $50 to make a pair of Super T jeans, True Religion's best-selling style with oversized white stitching, estimates founder, chairman and chief executive, Jeff Lubell. The wholesale price is $152, he says, and the average retail price is $335. Of course, plenty of these jeans sell at substantially less than full price.
TrueReligion的创始人、董事长兼首席执行官杰夫·卢贝尔（Jeff Lubell）说，做一条他们最畅销的 Super T 系列的牛仔裤，成本大约是50美元， 这款牛仔以超大的白色缝线风格著称。他说，这款裤子的批发价格是152美元，平均零售价为335美元，当然，大部分的牛仔会以比全价低一些的价格卖出去。
The Phantom was first shown to retailers in January, and True Religion is building its fall marketing campaign around the jean. With less prominent logos and detailing, it resonates with the current antilogo trend in fashion, but its details are designed to appeal to real "jeaners," as Mr. Lubell refers to premium-denim lovers. It has a small American flag hand-embroidered on the waistband. A subtle logo on the pocket is like a ghost, or phantom, of the brassy original logo.
“魅影”系列牛仔裤是在今年一月份的时候开始向零售商展示，TrueReligion 已经为它制订了秋季市场营销攻略。卢贝尔对那些超级牛仔的追捧者介绍说，这款裤子的标志和细节不太突出，符合当前反标志的时尚潮流，但细细看来，它的细处却又显示出真正的“牛仔范儿”。裤子的后腰上有一个小小的手工刺绣的美国国旗，口袋的黄铜钮钉上的标志看上去像个鬼魂或魅影。
"The Phantom is my Ferrari 458 Italia," says Mr. Lubell. "It's the newest, hottest baby of mine."
卢贝尔说：“‘魅影’就好比是我的法拉利 458 italia 汽车。它是我最新的、最疼的心肝宝贝。”
As with all fashion, a big part of the price of luxury denim is in the multiple profit margins taken at each level of production. Most any piece of clothing contains parts and services from potentially dozens of providers: from fabric and button makers, to designers and seamstresses, and wholesalers and sales agents. After all this, designers and retailers say the typical retail markup on all fashion items, including jeans, ranges from 2.2 to 2.6 times cost.
正如所有的时尚商品一样，高档牛仔裤的价格包含了生产过程中每个环节所付出的成本。每件成衣的背后，是来自于数十家供应商所提供的零配件与服务：从面料到钮扣制造商、从设计师到裁缝、从批发商到销售代理商。设计师和零售商说，经过这些工序与流通环节之后，基本上每件时尚成品，包括牛仔裤，要在成本价基础上加价2.2至2.6倍左右销售。
In the luxury business, those mark-ups cover huge marketing budgets (someone has to pay for giant billboards and ads in fashion magazines) as well as the costs of running stores, headquarters, shipping, and other overhead.
对于奢侈品行业来说，这些加价还包含了大量市场营销成本（总要有人为巨型的户外广告牌和时尚杂志上的广告买单吧），此外还有店面运营、总部运作、运输流通等等相关的开销。
图片说明： TrueReligion的“SuperT”牛仔裤。
The profit margins on premium jeans can be substantial. Mr. Geliebter says his gross profit margin for private-label jeans, which he makes for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Sears Holdings Corp. and other retailers, are less than 20%, whereas the margins for his own premium lines are 40%-to-50%.
高档牛仔裤的利润率也很可观。吉利伯特（Geliebter）说，他为沃尔玛公司、西尔斯控股公司和其他零售商生产的各公司自有品牌牛仔的毛利润率，低于20％；而他自己生产的高档牛仔系列的毛利润率是40％到50％ 。
It seemed a few years ago that the high end of the denim business was doomed, with the financial crisis killing many consumers' appetites for expensive jeans. Premium-denim makers cut back on styling and details, and cut prices in many cases to under $200. Manufacturers hit a price floor at around $150, mainly because premium denim is manufactured primarily in the U.S., which can't compete China and other nations with low labor costs.
似乎从几年前开始，高档牛仔行业深受金融危机的冲击影响，许多顾客失去了对昂贵牛仔裤的兴趣。许多“超级牛仔”制造商削减了生产的款式和细节，并尽量将价格控制在200美元以下。但工厂的价格底线在150美元左右，因为这些超级牛仔基本上都是在美国生产的，无法跟中国与其它国家的低劳动力成本相抗衡。
Beyond the rise, or waistband height, and leg silhouette—bootleg, skinny, or cigarette—the details that make jeans brands stand out are often on the pockets. J Brand's pockets are unadorned, while True Religion is known for its highly stylized pockets with swirly embroidery.
想让一条牛仔裤在众多的品牌中显得与众不同，往往要依靠细节——裆缝的设计，腰线的高度，腿形的轮廓——高帮的、瘦削的、直筒的，还有口袋。JBrand的口袋往往比较简朴，而TrueReligion的口袋则往往配有涡旋形的刺绣。
图片说明： TrueReligion的“SuperT”牛仔裤的后袋设计。
Jeans brands also try to stand out from season to season by using patented materials, such as rivets and stitching, and by using special washes and distressing methods. These might involve dying, pressing, and even using sandpaper and drills on the raw jeans. These methods can be particularly expensive when done in the U.S., where factories must meet more stringent environmental and labor standards than in many low-cost nations.
各个品牌的牛仔裤也尝试在每个季度使用不同的专利材料生产以显示其特色，如采用特别的铆钉与针线拼接法，采用特殊的磨洗法。在牛仔原料上可能会用到破坏、压挤甚至是砂纸打磨、钻孔等多种不同的加工工艺。在美国本土上使用这些加工方法代价会非常高，因为工厂必须符合比许多低成本国家更严格的环保和劳工标准。
Most premium jeans' cotton denim fabric comes from the primary maker of high-end denim fabric used in the U.S. and Europe: Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Denim, a unit of the International Textile Group. There, in a plant known as White Oak, shuttle looms dating from the 1950s weave the denim fabric that winds up in many premium denim brands, including J Brand. The looms are older, narrower, and slower than highly efficient modern looms, but they weave fabric with slight irregularities known as slubs, which impart a texture and character that modern looms lack.
大部分超级牛仔所使用的丹宁布料来自于总部设在美国北卡罗来纳州格林斯博罗市的科恩牛仔公司（ConeDenim），这家公司同时也是国际纺织集团的一个下属单位、美国及欧洲的高端牛仔面料的主要制造商。在那片土地上，种植着著名的植物：白橡。自1950年代开始，这里的有梭织机就开始编织各种牛仔布料，直到现在，包括 JBrand 这样的知名品牌在内的许多牛仔裤仍使用着这种面料。虽然这些织机已经很古老，纺出的线也窄，比现代的高效织机要慢，但它却能纺出带有轻微不规则、不均匀的纱线效果的面料，而这正是现代织机所缺乏的布料纹理特色。
Delores Sides, a spokeswoman for Cone Denim, says most of the weavers employed there have at least 20 years of experience, and one woman has being working at the mill for 55 years. They are employed full time and are paid benefits such as health care, she says.
科恩牛仔公司一位女发言人，德洛利斯·塞斯（DeloresSides）介绍说，公司雇佣的大部分织工都有20多年的工作经验，有一位女工甚至已经在厂里工作了55年了。他们都是全职雇工，有着包括医疗保健在内的完善的福利。
The Cone fabrics are shipped by truck or train to Los Angeles, where denim brands cut and sew them to their designs. Each part and bit of labor may ultimately be marked up five times or more before the pants reach retail stores. So the $23.30 spent for a Los Angeles-based seamstress to sew a pair of Super Ts will cost the consumer more than $100 at full price. Other notable costs include roughly $10 worth of fabric (1.8 yards a pair, on average), 44 cents for pocket linings, 37 cents for a zipper, and $2 for the embroidery on a back pocket. Washes for coloring and fading may be done in Los Angeles or, sometimes, at mills in Mexico.
科恩公司的布料用卡车或火车运抵洛杉矶后，各牛仔公司再根据设计要求自行剪裁缝制。在裤子成品最终抵达零售店面之前，每个部分的物料成本及付出的人工成本都会加价到5倍以上。这就是为什么一个洛杉矶的裁缝缝制的价值23.30美元的 Super T 牛仔到了消费者手中价格会变为100美元甚至更高。其它值得注意的成本包括价值约10美元的面料（平均一条裤要用1.8码），口袋衬里44美分，拉链37美分，每个后袋的刺绣2美元。水洗和褪色洗流程有时在洛杉矶做，有时在墨西哥的工厂做。
To be produced domestically, jeans have to be priced at "$200-plus," says Shelda Hartwell-Hale, a vice president at Directives West, an L.A.-based division of fashion consulting firm Doneger Group.
谢尔达·哈特韦尔（SheldaHartwell-Hale）是洛杉矶的时尚咨询公司党尼格集团（Doneger）的西部分公司一个副总，他认为，牛仔要在美国国内生产的话，售价就得在“200美元以上”。
图片说明： TrueReligion的吊牌，价值18美分。
Jeans makers say that manufacturing in the U.S., in addition to appealing to consumers, allows them to move quickly. When Jeff Rudes, founder and chief executive of J Brand, saw designer Jil Sander's electric colors in New York's Jeffrey boutique earlier this year, he asked his designers to come up with a hot pink and an emerald green color for jeans. Five days later, the first, small run of jeans were shipping into Barneys New York. Mr. Rudes says it typically takes his company six to eight weeks to make a pair of jeans in the U.S., compared with three to six months in China.
牛仔裤制造商说，美国制造不仅是对消费者有吸引力，而且也让他们能根据市场变化迅速采取行动。JBrand的创始人和首席执行官杰夫·鲁德斯（JeffRudes）今年初在纽约的杰弗里精品店里看到了设计师吉珊德（Jil Sander）的电子色彩设计，他马上要求他的设计师设计带有粉红色和翠绿色的牛仔裤。5天以后，第一批少量的牛仔裤就运送到了巴尼斯纽约精品店(Barneys NewYork)。鲁德斯说，在美国，他的公司通常需要6到8周来制作一条牛仔裤，相比之下，在中国就需要3到6个月了。
True Religion is one of the industry's giants, making 4 million units of clothing a year. He estimates that his $300 jeans could sell for $40 if he manufactured in China.
TrueReligion 是牛仔行业里的领军品牌之一，每年要售出4百万套成衣。卢贝尔估计，他那售价300美元的牛仔如果改为在中国生产，只能卖到40美元。
Still, Mr. Lubell has caved when it comes to jackets, the cutting and styling of which is more complex than pants. He makes them in Mexico, where costs are higher than in Asia, but less than in the U.S. The jackets retail for about $375. "If I made them here," he says, "they would be about $600."
尽管如此，卢贝尔在生产夹克时还是向成本妥协了。夹克的剪裁和造型工艺要比裤子复杂不少，所以他是在墨西哥生产的夹克，那里的制造成本虽比亚洲高，但还是比美国少了很多。他的夹克现在售价是375美元。“如果我是在美国生产的夹克”，他说道，“那就得卖到600美元了。”
Write to Christina Binkley at [email protected]
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