When We Think of Good Jeans, We Think CRVY

Like a second skin: tight in certain places, a bit stretchy in others. Flattering. Goes with 90% of everything else in the closet because that is what great denim was born to do.

I am built like my aunt. I am taller than my sister, with strong muscular legs, a small waist and a long torso. Growing up, I didn’t always love my hourglass shape, but as years pass, I have learned having a strong and healthy body is much more important. Now, I look for things that flatter my figure as it is. Finding the perfect jeans to fit around my waist and thighs has been a struggle until six months ago. That’s when we excitedly announced the launch of our exclusive FP CRVY line, a denim collection for women with curves, answering my prayers along with the prayers of many women like me.

Due to popular demand, today, we are introducing a few additional styles, and I took the opportunity to sit down again with our resident jean expert and Senior Designer Chlo. I interviewed Chlo last year about our denim collection but this time, I was intent on learning all the secrets behind CRVY. 

Tell us how CRVY started:

We started designing the line in early 2018, almost exactly a year ago. We saw a need for tasteful fashion for curvy women, and we wanted our denim line to be more inclusive of all customers.

The first step in creating the collection was to answer the question: what is “curvy” to us?
You can interpret curvy in many different ways, and what we targeted was a customer with a fuller butt and hips, and smaller waist. We measured many Home Office employees, and the average girl possessed that body type, with a 12-inch difference between the waist and hip area. (For reference, our normal fit model has a 10-inch difference.)
We found a fit model who fit that ratio and dressed her in many different styles. Our big takeaway –we wanted our denim to fit snugly around the waist so there’d be no gapping, fiting a touch tighter in the waist so that when it stretches out with wear, it would still fit perfectly. We added many other technical aspects like fusing in the waistband, and adding darts in certain places.
The line officially launched last fall which included 3 skinny styles, 1 flared and 1 straight.

What did you learn from the first collection? What did our customer love? What did she dislike?

A group of 4 to 5 fit models, all with different body shapes and sizes, allow us the opportunity to perform and monitor wear tests. They will wear a style for a couple of days and then give us feedback which will be used to make necessary tweaks. Some styles never even make it to the collection . Our pull-on for example, is still a work in progress.
From the original collection, our customer did not respond well to the very basic straight jegging. She seemed to have an appetite for fashion, preferring styles with more detailing, specifically the Super High-Rise LaceUp Flares and the High-Rise Lace Up Skinny.
This year, we added the Robin Flare which is my favorite style so far. It incorporates what the Free People girl is looking for:  a super high-rise flare in our least stretchy fabric so it holds its shape.

I personally love that CRVY embraces a curvier female shape and takes attention away from the stereotypical model body type.
Do you think this will eventually be reflected in our entire collection?

We are planning to incorporate shorts, and we’d love to expand into regular pants. The issue we’re facing is with fabric– we need a bit of stretch to create our CRVY styles, and a lot of fabrics do not allow that.
We have been offering extended sizing in our regular denim line.
Our tastes as a society are changing and the ideal body type is curvier than it was maybe twenty years ago. I find that very refreshing, and I love that we are embracing that here with CRVY.

What are the biggest challenges when creating a denim line to fit every shape?

The hardest part was finding the right shape around which to design our denim since every woman is so different. The average woman in America is curvy, so that’s where I started. Together with my team, we worked on fine tuning it. Using fit models here at Home Office was very helpful in finding the exact average ratio to use in our designs.

How would you define “Good Jeans”?

Finding jeans that are more inclusive and that look good on more people.

Shop our CRVY collection at FP.com

Follow Patry on Instagram

 

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This is great! I love that you guys are making clothes for women with different sizes! Now, if only someone would make jeans for very skinny girls… I find conventional jeans too large, even the Topshop Petite range!

Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com

Yasmin Rivera
4 years ago

Curvy does not equal fat. So honestly I don’t understand when you say your main issue is fabric and the curvy line needing stretch. I am curvy ( hourglass ) and my best jeans have no stretch. I think it’s all in the shape of the jeans. And yes we all come in different curves but reality is that a “ curvy “ line should be beneficial for someone with a small waist ( or relatively smaller than the hips ) wide hips, and ample booty. But please don’t get me wrong I’m not saying hourglass women don’t gain weight or are not heavy set naturally but there will always be a contrast between the waist and hips. Hopefully that made sense.