‘Still fits best’: A tried and tested model for denim returns

Jeanswest managing director George Yeung is ignoring Karl Lagerfeld’s ultimate fashion rule by looking back to the good old days and greatest hits of his business to mark its 50th anniversary.

“There is nothing worse than bringing up the good old days,” Lagerfeld once said. “To me, that’s the ultimate acknowledgment of failure.” It’s a safe bet that the legendary Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld never set foot in a Jeanswest store, so Yeung has looked back searching for success.

The shopping centre staple came closest to the zeitgeist in the nineties and noughties with model Chloe Maxwell, telling television viewers that “Jeanswest fits best,” so why not repeat the formula?

With her signature catchphrase updated to “Jeanswest still fits best,” Maxwell returns to front the denim brand, in a move the company hopes will bring Generation X shoppers with her.

“Looking back to where we have been led us down this path,” Yeung says. “We wanted someone who represented comfort and familiarity, which is what we want for our costumes.”

“The campaign speaks to our multi-generational shoppers who now have comfort at the front of mind.”

For Maxwell, the campaign is a step and strut back to when television advertisements and billboards, rather than social media followers, were the measure of modelling success.

“One of the best memories I had was when the ad first came out,” Maxwell says in a Jeanswest release. “The response was over the top. I had people stopping me on the street asking for autographs. There were posters of me from the floor to the ceiling in the stores.”