Lee drops female retro range in major revamp

Jeans company Lee has dropped the Ms Lee line of denim-based clothing after just one season as part of a revamp of next year’s spring/summer range. The company is ploughing &£1m into an in-store campaign to promote the revised product line. Parent VF Corporation split the Lee range into six lines in February in an attempt to reposition the brand for a younger market and distinguish it from sister jeans brand Wrangler. Ms Lee was a retro-style young women’s brand alongside Originals, Core, Leesures, Workwear and youth range Pipes. VF Jeanswear marketing controller Tim Henshall says the five lines are “concepts” rather than sub-brands, and that although Ms Lee opened up new channels of distribution it did not have a wide enough appeal in its own right. “The concepts have kept the brand going and made it more fashionable. We have taken the credible elements [of Ms Lee] and brought them into the Lee Jeans range.” The revamped Lee Jeans portfolio has been split into three categories: Traditional, Attitude and Newness. The Core range will now appear within the Lee Jeans portfolio. Leesures, Workwear and the skate-oriented Pipes are to continue as separate “concepts”, while the vintage line Originals will be promoted separately. Wrangler will launch a “comfortable” type of denim – called Broken Drill – for summer/spring 2000.