In preparation for the 150th anniversary of blue jeans in 2023, famous denim company Levi’s launched its flagship Philippine store yesterday on the second floor of SM Mall of Asia Main Mall in Pasay City.

According to Signature Lines Inc., the store is the first in the country to provide hand-painting and digital embroidery customizing services through its in-house Tailor Shop. Marielle Ardiente is the Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience.

Ardiente explained in an interview, “Everyone’s like ‘my own identity;’ younger generations are like that, right? That’s why the brand’s personalization motto is ‘Started by us, finished by you’,”.

“As you can see, the concept of the store has become younger. Even the silhouettes have become target toward the younger people. The concept of the store in terms of lighting is not as dark anymore,” She described the general layout and atmosphere of the store. Aside from larger fitting rooms, there are digital in-store technologies to assist shoppers in finding their right fit.

Aside from its tailor shop, which enables customization through patches, paneling, hemming, and collector pins, one of the brand’s main ideals, sustainability, lies at the heart of the business. As a result, consumers are not only free to bring their old Levi’s jeans to the tailor shop to be reconditioned; they can also check out new sustainable lines such as the Fresh collection, which has partially biodegradable, plant-based clothes made of fruits and vegetables.

Ardiente noted that the company just claimed that 50 to 70% of their bottoms are already made with waterless technology. According to the United Nations, a pair of jeans requires 7,500 gallons of water from cotton cultivation through production and even sale preparation.

Apart from saving tons of water, Levi’s is proud of their famous 501 jeans made of sustainable organic cotton, as well as collections constructed largely of recycled water bottles, according to Ardiente.

The store also sells Handmade in Japan collections, which adhere to the brand’s ideal of construction and longevity.

“One of our goals is to extend the clothes’ lives to the fullest, for them to ‘wear longer’,” She regarded.

Customers may get a free recycled sling bag with every P3,500 purchase from the new store till June 26. Until June 12, SM Advantage Card members receive 10% off all normally priced products, while Prestige members receive an extra 501 points for every P10,000 spent.

Following the success of SM Makati and Mall of Asia, SM intends to establish other Levi’s stores with a similar Tailor Shop concept at SM Fairview, Megamall, North EDSA, Lipa in Batangas, and Tuguegarao.

Tuguegarao City, like San Francisco, California, is a “denim country,” according to Ardiente, where merchant Levi Strauss manufactured blue jeans to market to gold rush prospectors.

Since its inception in 1873, Levi’s jeans have become one of the most iconic pieces of clothing in the world, famed for their traditional American design and casual charm. Levi Strauss & Co. reported fiscal net revenues of $5.8 billion in 2019. Every May 20, the company celebrates 501 Day in over 110 countries.

Ardiente said,“Although we’re exactly not there yet, but we’re feeling that the pandemic is toward its end”

Ardiente claimed that due to the increase of shoppers even on weekdays, their labor force had recovered to pre-pandemic levels.