Blue-Blood Jeans

Meet Ben and Suzanne Freiwald--the prince and princess of L.A.’s Earl Jeans, a small but powerful denim empire whose subjects include Kate Moss, Beck and other slim, behind-the-scenes hipsters.

Necessity is the mother of invention, some say, and Suzanne needed a pair of jeans. It was an emotional search. Levi’s had discontinued small 501 sizes, and she was dissatisfied with the cut of major brands. Suzanne wanted hip-hugging, narrow-legged jeans cut to her diminutive frame and cast in the darkest blue.

Ben figured that if Suzanne had such a particular hankering, there must be other women also suffering in silence. The marriage of Suzanne’s styling experience and Ben’s business acumen produced their first baby--Style 55, a low-slung indigo jean.

“It’s sort of Helmut Lang meets Wrangler,” says Ben.

They wrapped Style 55 in a bundle and drove to Fred Segal, which gave them the thumbs up, and it’s been up and up ever since.

Earl’s sales have leaped 1,500% in the past year. In Japanese department stores, they are outselling Levi’s. Available at Fred Segal, American Rag and Barneys.