Jenni Kayne, the nearly 25-year-old California lifestyle brand, is getting into the denim business, which completes its vision for full-wardrobe dressing.
The collection launches with Seeded Natural, an unbleached, undyed fabric that leaves the cotton’s own seeds visible in the weave. The fabric uses no dye, no synthetic wash and no manufactured patina. Rather than introduce itself to denim with traditional indigo, Jenni Kayne decided to begin with the fabric in its purest form. Indigo will follow in early 2027.
Inspired by the California landscapes that have shaped the brand since its founding, the first collection introduces three silhouettes: the Malibu Canyon Crop, Ojai Straight and Topanga Wide Leg. The campaign was photographed in Malibu — at the beach, in the mountains and along the open road — reflecting the way denim has always existed within the California wardrobe.
“We didn’t want to just add denim to the assortment. We wanted to earn the right to make it, which meant waiting until we had a real point of view,” said founder Jenni Kayne. “Seeded Natural is the point of view. It’s denim in its natural form, and it’s exactly how I wanted to start.”
Kayne told WWD that when you think of Los Angeles and the West Coast, you always think of T-shirts and jeans. “That’s always been something we wanted to delve into, but the business wasn’t ready until now. It’s been a natural extension of the growth that we’ve seen over the past 25 years,” Kayne said.
“The customer always pairs our T-shirts and collared shirts back to a great pair of jeans. So we’ve always had them in our store [third-party jeans], and they’ve always been a part of our personal uniform, but denim is its own beast as a category. It’s always been our philosophy that we don’t take on new things until we feel really ready, but this was the perfect timing. We’re ready to delve in,” Kayne said.
Jenni Kayne’s Ojai straight-leg jean.
Courtesy shot
Asked why she decided to launch with undyed and unbleached jeans, Kayne explained that when you think of the Jenni Kayne brand, everything always feels very neutral. “I have always loved the perfect cream jean…and never really found exactly what I was looking for, and so it just felt like the perfect time to launch denim and kind of stand out,” Kayne said.
“It really feels organic and grounded in nature, and just like the perfect bottom that you want to constantly reach for,” Kayne said. She said they’re also doing an olive, a bronze and an ash black in a later drop this fall.
Kayne said the company chose to wait until it could bring something distinctly its own to the category. That process took nearly a year, with the team developing the fit and hand alongside a denim specialist before selecting premium Candiani fabric from Italy and partnering with a manufacturer in Turkey. This past July, members of the Jenni Kayne team traveled to Turkey to work directly with their manufacturing partner and bring the collection to completion.
Jenni Kayne, which has been in business nearly 25 years, is known for its essentials such as sweaters, shirts, dresses, footwear and, more recently, tailored pants and skirts. As customers increasingly looked to the brand for complete outfitting, denim became the natural next step. It is the one category around that many women have already built their wardrobes, just without a Jenni Kayne label. Over the years the retailer has carried third-party denim in its stores such as Re/Done, A GoldE and Acne.
The jeans have a subtly embroidered JK on the back pocket, custom rivets, a signature front button and custom interior labels. The mid-weight denim is rigid, made of 100 percent cotton rigid denim and has a bit of a rustic feel.
Jenni Kayne’s Malibu cropped jean.
Courtesy of Jenni Kayne
“Denim is one of the hardest categories to do honestly,” Kayne said. “It’s not a piece you can fake. You either understand fit and fabric, or you don’t. We took the time to understand it.”
The Jenni Kayne Denim Collection retails for $265 and will be available in sizes 24 to 32 exclusively at Jenni Kayne stores and online and jennikayne.com.
For spring, they’re staying with the initial three silhouettes, and will see what’s working and what’s not working. “We get amazing feedback from our retail stores,” Kayne said. The line will be carried in its 30-plus retail stores and their e-commerce site, and they will keep it from its wholesale accounts for about a year.
When asked what the line’s aesthetic is, Kayne said, “I think everything feels really effortless and relaxed, but also flattering at the same time. There are silhouettes that work for different body types.” The branding is very minimal. They have a very subtle JK on the back. “That’s something that’s always really important to me. That can, for me, make or break whether I purchase a pair of jeans.”
Kate Watters, president of Jenni Kayne, sees large potential for the denim. “We definitely hope it becomes part of our classics assortment. We know our customer has an appetite for denim. We’ve been selling this third-party denim for some time. Our customers pair all of their favorite knits back to their favorite pair of jeans that’s vintage or what not. So I think, like Jenni said, we were just really waiting until the timing felt right. We know bottoms as a category has been successful for us. Right now, our pleated skirt and demi pants are two of our bestsellers. And in recent years we’ve had the ranger trouser, the relaxed trouser. So I think that it finally feels like this is the right time to offer a more casual look and just really have our own point of view on the category,” Watters said.
A Jenni Kayne ad image for its new fall denim collection.
Courtesy of Jenni Kayne
Once the Jenni Kayne indigo launches in the spring, that will be the only denim vendor they carry.
As for any new categories on the horizon, Kayne said, “I’m sure there are, but I feel like we’ve been so focused on this. I think in general, growing our tops business and continuing to grow home and all the categories that we’re already kind touched, tops, bottoms, all of these.”
Jenni Kayne currently has 31 stores around the country, and will open its first experiential store with a spa in Malibu next month.
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