New Levi's ads for ladies who got junk in they trunk

American garment maker Levi's launched a new jeans line for women this week, Curve ID, with a Wieden+Kennedy ad campaign bluntly declaring that, "All asses were not created equal," and "hotness comes in all shapes and sizes." This revelation is not entirely new. Related: I would like to see a pair of the Levi's jeans mud-wrestle it out with the GAP's "Beyond Skinny." [ * disclosure: I was once paid to speak at a W+K event.]

• [John Napsterista]

  Dove tried a similar campaign with supposedly “real-world” physiques about five years ago. Except in that one, the models were actually kind of curvy, as opposed to these scrawny Levi’s chicks.

• [Chumas]

  Anyone else getting multiple javascript alerts that say things like:
  “New Levi’s ads for ladies who got junk in they trunk – Boing Boing”

  • [Blinde Schildpad]

    Yup.

• [mellowknees]

  all I want to know is: are they actually made of cotton? It seems like ALL jeans manufacturers think women (particularly those of us who fall into the plus-sized category) want stupid fugging stretchy jeans. ALL I want are good old cotton jeans. The kind that don’t constantly slide down because they’re not stretchy. I don’t care what kind of models they use in their ads as long as they are making REAL cotton jeans.

  Well, and in my size. :)

• [skeptacally]

  i was going to ask the same thing.

  apparently, we were boinged.

• [Skully]

  Sounds like a great idea. In practice, though, given the models they picked, it looks more like:

  “Are you a skinny hipster girl with no curves? We got you! Are you a skinny hipster girl with some curves? We’ve got you! Are you a black hipster girl with a little bit of an ass? We’ve got you, too!”

  Not sure where that leaves anyone who’s not rail-thin or enamored of hoodies and/or ironic suspenders.

  • [Caroline]

    Yeah. The B-roll consists of….girls with no hips. Thanks, Levi.

    That said, I do own a pair of “curvy fit” Levi’s, and they do fit without gapping at the waist, which is nice because I’ve worn holes at the belt loops of my other jeans, hitching them up at the waist every five minutes. (I tried a belt. If it was cinched tight enough not to be useless, it made the waist of the jeans bunch up all weird.)

    My trunk isn’t even particularly junk-laden; I have an hourglass shape but no apple bottom. I guess the existence of hips any bigger than one’s waist requires special consideration.

• [bcsizemo]

  Isn’t this the reason that different type of stores exist in the first place?

  Like Lane Bryant?

  And I do love the “dat ass” comment on the page…

  • [mickeymao]

    In a word, no.

    Curvy != plus size and plus size != curvy, even though there’s a lot of overlap. As other commenters have pointed out, stores like Lane Bryant are already providing a similar product for the plus-size market, but no one’s doing it for the non-plus-size market. It looks like this line is aimed at smaller women who are, nonetheless, actually curvy. Personally, I’ve got a 28-inch waist and 37-inch hips, which is not even all that ‘curvy’, and the only reasonably-priced jeans on the market that seem to fit me are Levi’s curvy fit 529s. I envy my friends who can actually shop at Lane Bryant, but tragically, they don’t make size sixes (or even size twelves).
    Of course, it would be more encouraging if the ad itself actually showed anyone with an ass, but my experiences with the above-mentioned 529s make me cautiously optimistic.

    • [starbreiz]

      YES! Thank you. I hate being in between sizes, I’ve had a curvy booty, but a small waist. An ex once said ‘you don’t have a white girls ass’ (i’m white).

      Wishing I could star your comment or something to educate all the previous commenters :)

• [Anonymous]

  As a size 5 petite woman with a 9″ difference between my waist and hip measurements, and what my latino friend refers to as a “ghetto booty”, I’ve found that the only way to get pants (jeans or any other type of pants) to fit really well, is to buy the ones that fit my ass, and then have my fabulous, and reasonably priced, tailor take in the waist.

  I already have to have every pair of pants I buy shortened, since manufacturers seem to think that if you’re a size 5 you MUST also be 5’6″ tall at LEAST, so having my tailor take them in at the same time only costs me an additional $5.

  and the only Levis I can find that fit my big booty, small waist, tiny but curvy body at all flatteringly are regular old 501s, worn a bit loose.

  I’d be willing to try their new “bold curve” jeans, but I’m not holding my breath for a good fit.

  • [Anonymous]

    Word!

    When I was younger, I would have worn about a size two if I could have gotten jeans that weren’t designed for flat-assed people. As it was, I’d have to wear at least a six and put darts in the waist, and even then, they didn’t really fit right.

    I still have the same issue, except that I’m middle aged now, and the size difference is between a six and an eight or ten.

    People need to quit conflating overweight ‘curvy’ and proportionately ‘curvy.’ They’re two different things, and for the most part, proportionately curvy women have either had to modify their clothing to fit them properly, or shop in specialty ‘ethnic’ stores.

    The fact that something doesn’t solve your particular problem doesn’t mean it’s not going to solve someone else’s.

• [sjfbarnett]

  I agree with Skully. This campaign is an insult. Making the typeface curvy doesn’t make the models any more shapely.

  If Levi’s wants to persuade ‘real women’ to wear their new line of jeans, then they should use ads with those same real women.

• [Anonymous]

  Lane Bryant and a couple of other “plus size” stores have been doing this for almost 2 years now with their Right Fit line http://www.lanebryant.com/content.jsp?pageName=RightFit&

• [littlebone]

  Someone call Steve Jobs. Tell him they forgot to show the white ear-buds in the latest iPod ad.

• [jrtom]

  There was an interview on NPR yesterday evening that touches on this ad campaign. Here’s the relevant bit, IMO:

  “Well, there’s curvy, and then there’s curvy as a euphemism for plus-size. And these are – they’re not going into the plus-size realm here. The sizing goes up to about a 34-inch waist, I think, which really works, you know, out to being maybe a size 14, you know, give or take.”

  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129160867

  So…yeah. I think they’re kind of missing the point. And (a big part of) their market.

• [dragonfrog]

  Great – jeans for ladies with no butt to some but not all that much butt, whose legs are in the range of never-walks-anywhere skinny to walks-sometimes-but-doesn’t-own-a-bike skinny.

  When we go to Latin American countries, Mrs. Dragonfrog stocks up on jean – she’s not latina, but she has somewhat muscular legs from cycling a lot, and lovely curves, both of which are typically ignored by clothes makers here. And, by the looks of it, continue to be (although of course I haven’t seen the jeans in question, just the possibly unrealistic ad campaign)

• [Jenonymous]

  Sorry, this is a load of shit. I was so encouraged at first–as someone who is 5’7″ and anywhere between a size 14 and 18 depending upon brand, I thought, wow, finally something other than Land’s End “mom jeans” for me.

  When I went to order my “recommended cut” the sizes cut off at a 32″ waist.

  Fuck you, Levi’s.

  FWIW, Newport News has ALL of its pants in ALL sizes. I get all of my work slacks and jeans from them now because their stuff FITS and they’re not patronizing douchebags towards their customer base that is over 30 or over 100 lbs.

  http://www.newport-news.com/

• [scionofgrace]

  Women with brains have already figured out how to use the current “fit” system to find good jeans. If I go a size up with a “slim” fit and low rise, I get jeans that fit my large-ish thighs and utter lack of rear end. It just takes some experimenting.

  And if I had money, I’d go here

• [eccentriffic]

  For someone who hates shopping for jeans because of this very reason, I have to say at least it’s a start. Right? Just like it was AMAZING when they came out with “Short”, “Average” and “Long” sizes for those of us who don’t fit their Twiggy standard.

  I always have a little laugh when I go to the store and find 10 pairs of size “0″ and “1″ (wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy girl’s jeans at this point?), no 7s or 9s, and a few 12s and 14s left on the racks. Obviously the jean companies just aren’t getting it.

  After Arizona brand went all “skinny” jean on me (hello, not everyone has the figure for those!), I had to search out another brand with the right fit.
  Just thought I’d pass it on that Lee’s “Slender Secret” jeans with “lower on the waist” (and other fits under “Slender Secret”) fit amazingly well. No mom-butt style going on, no waist-gapping, not too much stretch (98% cotton, 2% spandex). Very modern and chic, at least in my opinion. :D