Earl Jean

Earl Jean wants to be known for more than denim.

The next two seasons are going to be a key transition for the seven-year-old denim label, according to Bonnie Takhar, who took over as president of Earl in October. She’s preparing a major push into advertising, product extensions and licensing.

“I want to turn the label into a brand….taking it from a five-pocket denim business into more of a collection-based business,” she said in a recent interview.

The first step in her effort to transform the Earl business, which was acquired by Nautica Enterprises in 2001, is an ad push for fall.

Earl ran its first campaign last fall, while it was still under the direction of former president Joe Kraftka. Those ads appeared in three regional East and West Coast fashion magazines. The new ads will break in the September issues of Vogue, GQ and other major international fashion titles, as well as on billboards in Manhattan, Takhar said.

Earl officials said they had not yet finalized the budget for the campaign.

Earl has hired the New York ad agency Lipman, which in the past handled fashion brands including Burberry and David Yurman, to create the campaign.

In a Tuesday morning interview at his office in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, David Lipman, creative director of the agency, described the new ads as conveying and aesthetic of “rock ‘n’ roll meets artistry.”

The black-and-white ads, shot by Patrick Demarchelier, feature male and female models. The female is intended to be an artist and the male, a rock musician. Lipman said he chose him because of his strong resemblance to late grunge icon Kurt Cobain.

Lipman said he regarded the assignment as developing “the whole visual DNA” for the Earl brand. Takhar said the eventual goal is not just to reach core Earl customers, but also to create a group of “aspirational” customers.

“The “aspirational” customer is one of our largest target audiences going forward,” said Takhar. “They know the name, they understand who we are and they are just looking for us to lead them to the brand.”

Lipman said turning the Earl brand into a well-recognized one will take about two years.

“Accessibility is the most important thing,” in a brands image he said. But, he added, “you can’t start with the premise of accessibility. You have to start with the premise of being cool and then build on it.” Read More…