Clearly vying for a polished image of its beloved Americana denim and such, Levi's has announced it will open a shop in the Meatpacking District this fall -- putting it right up against fashion A-listers like Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.
The Meatpacking District went from a region on the fringes of the city serving its one eponymous purpose, to a gritty-cool haven for designers to prove their cutting edge, attracting the likes of Diane von Furstenberg, Matthew Williamson, Theory, Vince, Jeffrey and eventually, Apple. Levi's, which extends itself from limited-edition vintage going for upwards of $500, Capital E in the $100-$200 range, the mainstream stuff up to $80 and its lowest level Signature line offered at big box mass retailers like Wal-mart and Target.
It's unclear what the Meatpacking shop will focus on within that range, but we concur with neighbor Jeffrey, whose president Jeffrey Kalinsky clarified Levis' status as its own genre, rather than a notch somewhere along the price-point scale. We're talking 501s, not Wet Seal, after all. Dare we say it? Meatpacking isn't really the pinnacle of hip anymore, so a little Levi's can't hurt - it may even shift the neighborhood's cache to different heights.
