Dockers Authentics 93/94, Ray Brown, Martin Ferries, Walter Schupfer, Rick Arango and Michael Ostheim

Brand: Dockers Authentics
Year: Fall/Winter 1993
Models: Ray Brown, Martin Ferries and ?
Ph:







THE MEDIA BUSINESS -- ADVERTISING; Levi's Tailors Dockers to New Market
By Stuart Elliott
Published: January 14, 1993


LEVI STRAUSS & COMPANY built Dockers into one of the apparel industry's most successful new brands -- indeed, one of the most successful new brands of any kind of the 1980's -- by selling men casual clothing to supplant store-brand or no-name pants and shirts in their wardrobes.

Now, the company is embarking on ambitious plans to expand Dockers into a market where rivals go by famous names like Ralph, Calvin, Tommy and Banana.

Beginning in July, Levi Strauss will introduce Dockers Authentics, a collection of so-called American classic sportswear priced between Dockers and men's apparel from designers like Ralph Lauren (Polo), Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, or from retailers like Banana Republic.

It is estimated that Dockers Authentics might reach perhaps 10 percent of the total annual retail sales of men's Dockers, which surged to a record $1.5 billion in 1992, just six years after introduction. To would-be buyers -- men aged 21 to 35, rather than the 25-to-49-year-olds who wear Dockers -- Levi Strauss is eager to convey that Dockers Authentics, which will cost 5 to 10 percent more than its forerunner, is meant as a premium version of Dockers, in the same way that Mercury is a premium Ford. So the apparel giant will use better fabrics, sell the line only in department stores and promote it separately as "Something new that's been there all along."

"There are a lot of consumers out there who want a slightly better look and more style," Robert Hanson, marketing director for the menswear division at Levi Strauss, said during an interview at the company's showroom in midtown Manhattan. Visitors could view a prototype Dockers Authentics display, reminiscent of a Polo department minus the ponies.

The decision to develop another line bearing the Dockers name, aimed at a different market, is emblematic of two widespread trends in consumer-product marketing. One is called line extensions, devising variations of a best-selling product; among notable examples are the new Crystal Pepsi soft drink and Tartar Control Crest toothpaste.

The other is niche marketing or market segmentation, which, inelegantly put, slices a nice fat bologna into increasingly thinner pieces in hopes of satisfying additional appetites. Levi Strauss is a master at that; basic Levi's jeans begat a closet full of denims for younger, older, fashion-conscious and fad-oriented consumers.

"Dockers Authentics is really a new segment of the Dockers business," said Robert C. Siegel, president of the menswear division, "that we believe has some real growth opportunities for us."

Estimated total annual retail sales of Dockers, including the women's and children's lines and related merchandise like shoes, has grown to exceed $1.8 billion, out of total Levi Strauss sales of around $4.9 billion. Still, the company confronts a daunting task in introducing a fancier line under that name.

"Dockers has been a roaring success with guys who are fat and 40," said Alan Millstein, editor and publisher of the Fashion Network Report newsletter in New York.

But the concept of trying to capture a young men's customer, extending the Dockers name to another generation of consumers, is wishing upon a star," he added. The primary problem, he continued, was the intention to sell Dockers Authentics through department stores. "The 17-to-35-year-old men in this country are mall rats," he asserted, favoring specialty stores like Banana Republic, the Gap and Merry-Go-Round because "they perceive the department store as a place where their mothers go to buy career clothes and their grandmothers go to have a cup of tea."

Mr. Millstein believes that Dockers Authentics might fare well among the typical female department-store shopper, who often purchases clothing for the men in her life.

Mr. Siegel and Mr. Hanson are, of course, more sanguine about selling men Dockers Authentics in department stores owned by retailers like Dayton Hudson, Federated and May. Those chains "making a concerted effort to turn their business around," Mr.Hanson said, by offering consumers "specialty-store-like service" will attract the more sophisticated male shoppers of the 1990's.

The elaborate introductory campaign for Dockers Authentics will come from Foote, Cone & Belding in San Francisco, the longtime Levi Strauss agency that is involved in everything from producing outdoor signs to designing garment hang tags.

Jack Rooney, senior vice president and group management supervisor, said that print advertisements were being considered for August issues of magazines like GQ, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, compared with the regular Dockers ad outlets like People.

The ad budget was estimated at $4 million to $5 million, versus an annual Dockers ad budget of $20 million to $25 million.

Rather than the formal portraits rife in men's sportswear advertising, Mr. Rooney said, his ads will take a looser, more humorous tack.

"Polo does a fabulous job," he added, "but we don't want to play on their playing field."

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Brand: Dockers
Year: Spring/Summer 1994
Models: Walter Schupfer, Rick Arango and Michael Ostheim
Ph:

Walter Schupfer and Ricardo Ramos gor GQ 87 by Arthur Elgort

GQ
October 1987
"True Brit, Tweeds define the English gentleman"
Models: Walter Schupfer, Ricardo Ramos and Steevie Van Der Veen
Ph: Arthur Elgort
Hair: Guido for Tony & Guy, London
Fashion: Garrick Anderson, Ralph Lauren, Byblos, Pringles of Scotland, Hugo Boss, Kilgour, Cecilia Metheny, Bartex, Jeff Sayre, Rodier Hommes, Scotland Yard by Simon Graj, Paul Smith, Banana Republic, Chanel, Jeffrey Banks, Matsuda, Gucci, H.Kauffman and Sons Saddlery Co., Massimo Oti, British Khaki by Robert Lighton, L.L Bean, Brooks Brothers, Joseph Abboud and Calvin Klein.

Photographers: Bill King, tribute to the king of the fashion pictures

"In December 1987 the photographic and fashion worlds turned out at the Frank Campbell funeral chapel in Manhattan to pay respects to a young photographer who had taken the industry by storm.

Bill King, who had died of complications of AIDS, was a “wonder boy” best known for his witty, energy-filled fashion images, shot elegantly against white seamless, in French and American Vogue. Today, however, King is barely mentioned in books and other histories of photography and fashion. “He has been erased,” says Naudet. “He needs to be remembered.”"

Jean-Jacques Naudet
American Photo's editor at large

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Photo Italia1988, February
"Bill King: Tribute to the King of the fashion pictures, Bill King remembered by Franceline Prat from Vogue Paris, Jean Demachy from Elle France and fashion designer Enrico Coveri. "
Models: Walter Schupfer, Brian Lucas, Nick Constantino, Gale O'Neal, Renee Simonsen, Estelle Lefebure, Ashley Richardson, Janice Dickinson, Cindy Crawford, Elle McPherson, Brooke Shields, Annete Stai, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier, Mike Reinhardt, Arthur Elgort.










Vanity Fair
Year: August 1994, Issue #408
Models:  Jerry Hall, Iman, Carol Alt, Kim Alexis, Kelly Emberg and Rene Russo
Ph: Portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe.

"It has been seven years since photographer Bill King died of AIDS, but he has yet to be laid to rest. His final years remain a mystery to most of the people who thought they knew him best.

His story was not told when he died because he was one of the first major figures in the visual arts to be taken by AIDS, Although King died at 48 he had a prodigious output, his signature photographs were studio shots that were seamless in both background and foreground, rich celebrity photobiographies and energy-infused fashion photographs of "jumping" models.

There were also unpublished nudes-artful ones done at sittings for unfinished book projects, and others, taken at pre-safe-sex parties, which many top names in fashion and entertainment are praying never turn up.

The fortune he should have amassed as, in the words of one magazine art director, "probably one of the best photographers ever" is either spent or lost. And his bewildering will is still tied up in a legal battle between members of his family and his last protegé.

His considerable visual legacy is in limbo, And the story of how it got that way - and of how he came to be beloved, reviled, honored and pitied - is still quizzically whispered about in the fashion world, where faces come and go but behind of scenes giants such as Bill King survive the styles."

Walter Schupfer and Olivier Debray 88 by Douglas Keeve

Playboy Magazine
"The Skins Game"
Models: Walter Schupfer and Olivier Debray
Year: November 1988
Ph: Douglas Keeve
Fashion: Hugo Boss, Bill Robinson, Byblos, Elmer Little, Peter Barton

Walter Schupfer 86 by Douglas Keeve

Playboy Magazine
"Back to Campus"
Year: 1986
Models: Walter Schupfer, a male model and two female models
Ph: Douglas Keeve
Fashion: Timberland, Perry Ellis, WilliWear WilliSmith, Daniel Cleary, Yves Saint Laurent, Lee

Walter Schupfer 1985

Walter Schupfer in Beethoven's Nephew 1985, It was just a small scene where he appeared.




Beethoven's Nephew (1985) is the story of Ludwig van Beethoven's final years, when the composer became involved in a series of vicious court battles with his sister-in-law over the custody of his teen-age nephew, Karl, the son of his brother, Karl Caspar.



Though there has been speculation about the roots of Beethoven's obsession with Karl, including the suggestion of a homosexual relationship, no single cause has ever been substantiated. The screenplay, which the film maker asserts is scrupulously accurate, maintains a discreet distance from all such speculation.

However, the film, as photographed, is full of homoerotic nuances, even if they don't involve the increasingly deaf and emotionally troubled old man. Mr. Morrissey's camera ignores Mr. Morrissey's screenplay (written with Mathieu Carriere). Instead of attending to the facts, the camera just sort of hangs around, staring at Dietmar Prinz, who plays Karl.

Mr. Prinz, a young Viennese medical student, looks rather like a male version of Mariel Hemingway. He has a square jaw, blue eyes and wears spit curls and a ponytail. He is, one must admit, pretty. Maybe Mr. Prinz is acting sullen, or perhaps his mind is a blank. It's impossible to tell, even in the context of the so-called story. There's no doubt, though, that the camera adores his utterly expressionless face. It can't take its eyes off him. The camera subverts Beethoven's obsession and substitutes its own.

In the course of the film, Karl exchanges ambiguous glances with other young men who are almost as pretty. These include Karl's mother's lover, who also has blue eyes and wears his hair in 19th-century Viennese dreadlocks. (Walter Schupfer)

Source: The New York Times