Retro Fit

Uh-oh, it’s Sergio. Sergio Valente jeans, those super-snug dungarees that faded with the disco scene in the late ‘80s, are being relaunched with the same embroidered pockets and skintight fit of days past.

Seizing on the current fascination with retro fashions, Seattle Pacific Industries, which owns the Sergio Valente license, believes it’s time to bring back the dark jeans that flourished in dance clubs during the early ‘80s.

Sergios aren’t the only jeans returning from a decade-long banishment from the clothing racks. Calvin Klein has reintroduced the same style jeans that Brooke Shields made famous nearly two decades ago, while Jordache, Gloria Vanderbilt and Sasson are also resurrecting signature jeans of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Teens and twentysomethings--many of whom had never heard of Sergio Valente before now--are snatching up everything from the classic jeans, pedal pushers, “tube” dresses and denim miniskirts.

“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Mary Wilberding, president of New York-based Sergio Valente, which disappeared in 1988 but resumed production last year. “People who remember Sergio start laughing when they see the jeans, and younger kids go, ‘How cool.’ ”

The relaunch is a bit of a risk for Seattle Pacific Industries, with Sergio Valente pitted against powerhouse labels such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein in the $460-million designer jeans market. But the company’s test launch last fall of 15 Sergio pieces fared well, at least in some urban specialty stores.

The return of Sergio Valente offers yet another example of how fashion trends are rediscovered by later generations. The resurfacing of dark, hug-your-buttocks denim is part of an ongoing revival of ‘70s and ‘80s fashions, fueled by retro music, movies and television shows.

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Designer Diane Von Furstenberg has resurrected her wrap dress to glowing reviews; Candies has successfully marketed its fun-loving sandals to today’s girls and teens; Fiorucci will launch a line with its famous angel logo, and Halston has reintroduced beaded dresses and halter styles.

“We know fashion always goes in a cycle,” said Tom Julian, a New York fashion trend analyst. “First, we saw a lot of ‘70s fashions come back. Now, we’re into ‘80s styles.”

But bringing back classic looks is hardly a sure thing. Today’s fashion mavens are driven by much more than nostalgia. They want to look retro, but not old-fashioned. Styles need to be freshened, but not so much that they lose their vintage charm.

While wrap dresses have fared well, bell-bottom pants were a bust. Classic designer jeans are the talk of the moment, but some wonder whether those styles will quickly return to where they’ve been for the last decade--the closet.

The success of a brand such as Sergio Valente hinges on whether the name becomes alluring to those who may have been too young to remember the Sergio label during its glory days.

Wilberding is quick to tout Sergio’s current celebrity connections. Matt LeBlanc wore a vintage pair of Sergio jeans on “Friends” at the end of last season; Mariah Carey has been photographed in a Sergio tank top, and the Spice Girls also are Sergio fans.

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A trial shipment of clothes last fall to selected department stores and about 150 specialty stores was snatched up within days in most cases.

“Our Sergio stuff is doing amazing,” said Wendy Red, women’s buyer for the Washington, D.C., specialty clothing chain Up Against the Wall. “It’s the most requested thing in our store.”

Said Paul Sparrow, manager of Untitled, a New York boutique: “The Sergio line did really well as soon as we got it in. Some people remember it from the first time it came around, but younger kids are buying the jeans, too.”

Sergio Valente’s comeback is set for fall, when it will introduce a line of 30 pieces. How the brand fares is likely to determine whether the Sergio label has enough appeal to become more than just a fleeting fad.

Billy Chandler, women’s buyer at New York specialty store Canal Jean, said Sergio sales have been strong, but customers still favor jeans styles by Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

“I don’t think Sergios will become as large as they were back in the early ‘80s,” Chandler said. “But they are getting some attention. A few people saw them and thought we had them in our stockroom for 20 years and just pulled them out.”

Sergio Valente jeans debuted in 1979, after Valente--a popular Italian hairdresser--lent his name to the line. Although Valente wasn’t involved in designing the clothes, the label quickly attracted a following.

“Once the goods hit the stores, it was an amazing phenomenon,” said Richard Slon, who designed both the original and the new Sergio Valente lines. “It was like feeding strawberries to donkeys. Consumers were just eating it up.”

Between 1979 and 1982, annual sales topped $125 million, with more than a million pairs of jeans sold each month. “Charlie’s Angels” star Jaclyn Smith and Valerie Bertinelli of “One Day at a Time” wore them on television. And Sergios were a staple at Studio 54, one of the hottest New York dance clubs of the time.

But by the mid-’80s, consumers began favoring a more casual look, which led to the next denim craze, stone-washed jeans. Suddenly, the idea of wearing dark-blue designer jeans became as hip as donning a pair of orange polyester pants.

Sergio Valente attempted a stone-washed look, but the company foundered because the new jeans didn’t fit the personality of the brand. In 1988, the company stopped production.

Sergio owes its return to the popularity of vintage jeans in the resale market, where urban teens have been snapping up disco-era Sergios from used-clothing stores.

“We started seeing Sergios in secondhand stores, on the streets and at clubs,” Wilberding said. “This thing has been bubbling for some time.”

Except for a lower-waisted fit and a more comfortable stretch fabric, the new Sergios remain true to the old design, down to the embroidery on the back pocket and the stitching that runs down the sides.

As they bring back their own classic jeans, Sasson and Jordache are pursuing different strategies. They see their vintage jeans as just one part of extensive fashion lines consisting mostly of contemporary styles.

Sasson and Jordache classic jeans will retail for under $35, compared with a price tag of $60 to $65 for the Sergios, which some observers believe may be too high for the teen market.

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Trend watcher Julian questions whether Sergio Valente has enough cache to compete in the higher-end designer jeans market. “At this point, nothing has hit me over the head that this will be a major brand,” he said.

Seattle Pacific doesn’t see Sergio as a mass-market brand, but as an exclusive label for urban trendsetters.

Instead of attempting an all-out marketing push, Wilberding favors a more subtle approach that doesn’t ostracize the fashion-forward youngsters who tend to get turned off once they sense a brand is being mass-marketed.

“We almost have to do an anti-marketing campaign because, the minute these kids sense that there’s a corporatization of designer denim, you’re dead,” Wilberding said. “We may run some of the ads from the ‘80s, but they’ll run like at 3 a.m. on MTV.”

Specialty stores, as opposed to department stores, will remain the focus because the company wants Sergios to be an edgy and alternative brand that isn’t on every store’s shelves. And the new Sergio jeans--copied from ‘80s styles so tight that women had to lay down flat to zip them on--won’t be made in sizes larger than 12.

“Our attitude is that if you can’t wear it to look good, you shouldn’t wear it,” Wilberding said. “We want Sergios to have that kind of snob appeal.”