Jean-eology

What’s your earliest memory of the company? When I was a kid, Guess would hold these district manager meetings, where they’d talk about the brand and what was going on, and I would always go! What was it like for you to grow up in the midst of Guess? In middle school, I was really into skateboarding. As I started shopping for myself, I was like, “All I want to wear is skate brands!” But then as I got older, I started to know a little bit more about Guess, and I started interning there when I was 17. That’s when I began to go into the archives, which gave me a whole new understanding of the brand. Did you always plan to join the family business? I went back and forth. I always knew I wanted to work with my dad, but it kind of all fell into place in high school. I wanted to do my own clothing thing, so I

started making some samples [in downtown L.A.], and then at one point, I realized, “This is a super complicated business. I need to understand this before I make something.” That’s when I started working in production and product development, understanding how to manufacture. After two or three years of that, I moved into more of a creative role. What’s the concept behind Guess Jeans USA? Guess Jeans USA evolved from a project we did with A$AP Rocky. It was a breath of fresh air and looked back to what Guess was about in the ’80s and ’90s. The new generation thinks of Guess as a huge commercial brand with a store on Fifth Avenue. But what Guess was then is so similar to what this younger demographic is into today. All the kids that line up for Yeezy and Supreme and stuff like that now? That’s what the generation of the ’80s and ’90s did with Guess, Nautica, Polo,

Jordans, and all that stuff. Basically the whole [Guess Jeans USA] program is derived from the archives—the clothing archive, the graphic archive, and the photo archive. We have every negative and every picture shot for Guess advertising, so whenever it comes to doing a collection with a different brand or a different person, that’s where we go into those assets, and we see what makes the most sense. What are some of the greatest Guess hits of the ’80s and ’90s? We brought stonewash to L.A. We created the first Marilyn three-zip jean. At the time, denim was ridged. You couldn’t put your foot through a skinny jean. When we put the zipper on it, it was a breakthrough. That’s what the program’s also about—the product, the innovation, and the original design from Guess, because we were always pushing the limits.

What was it like working with A$AP Rocky? He had a really great perspective of how he wanted to communicate. He grew up in Harlem, and Guess was a really special brand to him at the time. He’s very involved. He’s one of the few people who is checking the fabrics, the Pantone colors, the threads—all the details, from the product side to the marketing, imagery, and casting. How do you balance the heritage of the brand with pushing it forward? A lot of these designs are timeless, it’s just about how you bring them back. The archive is so deep, in terms of how much is in there. We have all the creative stock in the world—how do we rerelease it back into the market in a well-told story? How have your followers been responding to it? Really well. We’ve built a pretty good community. We

have a separate Instagram (@guessjeans) with 75,000 followers now. It comes down to the value proposition— we make all of this in L.A. at a price point that is really affordable. We always feel that it’s important to never price out our customers. What was the concept for the farmer’s market pop-up in L.A. last May? We threw a real farmer’s market in the parking lot of Guess headquarters in L.A. Over two days, we had 5,000 people there. There were live performances, as well as a presence by a lot of other brands we collaborated with. All the products exclusively dropped in L.A. No one knew it would be a global tour at the time. Then after we announced it, we took the concept to Paris, London, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Perth. Next, we went to Miami, New York, Toronto, and then Mexico City.

Were there always plans to take the show on the road? Yes, but we wanted to focus on the big L.A. moment first. When we announced the global tour, a lot of people were angry, thinking it was only going to be in L.A. There were actually a few people who told us that they flew out for the event from Florida or Missouri. When we announced the international part of it, it got a really good response. The most surprising was in Australia. I think we had 430 people in line for the pop-up. Some showed up two days in advance, camping out with chairs. That’s the first time we’ve ever done anything in Australia, so that was a big eye-opener for us. What’s it been like going to see all these cities, and meeting all these people? It’s amazing. It’s the same community in all these different cities, and it’s interesting to see how they all style themselves and do their thing. What other projects do you have in the pipeline? A Fall collection, a capsule that’s coming in October, and then we have a big launch of something that’s going to premiere at ComplexCon in L.A. in November. What should we expect from the Guess Jeans USA Fall collection? There will be an element with Darren Romanelli and his company, ALM—A Love Movement—which does all these hand-done patches. The inspiration is very outdoorsy, camping. That will be launching in L.A. at the end of September with a pop-up installation. None of this goes into the Guess stores. All of it goes into high-end specialty boutiques and our own online site. How do you feel about cut-off jeans? I’m not a fan.

BY ARIA DARCELLA