Retailers that are seeking to supercharge growth all seem to be turning to one category: women’s. Levi’s has bet on women’s fashion to grow the denim brand to $10 billion, with CEO Michelle Gass bringing in Beyoncé and adding tops and embroidered jean jackets to its traditional jean assortment. Women shop for themselves, their families, and they buy clothing more often, Gass has explained of the strategy.
Another legacy denim brand has a similar strategy underway. True Religion, the 2000s-favorite denim brand known for the “U” logo on its jeans’ back pockets, is betting on women’s, CMO Kristen D’Arcy tells me.
“I think it’s industry wide that people realize the shopping power and the loyalty that women have,” she says. At True Religion, women’s has jumped from 29% of total sales in 2022 to a projected 43% in 2025, and accounts for almost half of ecommerce. The brand is now targeting women shopping for themselves and women shopping for men.
Women are crucial to the brand’s comeback strategy. After defining the 2000s, worn by the era’s It girls like Paris Hilton, True Religion filed for bankruptcy in 2017, as its trendiness factor waned. The brand had tried removing its famous logo to keep up as tastes shifted toward a more minimalist aesthetic—but that didn’t work. A new CEO started in 2019, and brought the logo back. “It is instantly recognizable in a way other brands just are not,” D’Arcy says.
Today, True Religion has found its customer in 25- to 45-year-olds, with household income around $65,000 to $70,000. It’s popular among athletes and musicians, and even Timothée Chalamet when he’s courtside for the Knicks. The celebrities it’s tapped include Anitta and Ciara.
The brand is around $450 million in size today, with a goal of reaching $1 billion—”doubling down” on women to get there.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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