GUESS JEANS is the new core denim brand by the American denim pioneer, GUESS. Previewing in January 2024 during Pitti Immagine in Florence, the enterprise reclaims the fashion giant’s legacy as a frontrunner in the denim field with the introduction of GUESS AIRWASH™: a state-of-the-art sustainable alternative to the stone washing spearheaded by GUESS at its inception in 1981. Conceived by Creative Director Nicolai Marciano, GUESS JEANS reconnects with the essence of the brand that changed the culture of denim. The timeless proposal reimagines and refines the authentic West Coast wardrobe epitomised by GUESS through contemporary values and vision. Built upon forty years of modern heritage, GUESS JEANS constructs a springboard for the next four decades of the American fashion institution.

Introducing the sustainable GUESS AIRWASH™ technology, GUESS JEANS reinvents the mechanics of the brand’s own making. When the Marciano brothers founded GUESS in 1981, they brought to fashion the stone washing that would transform the face of denim forever. Its modern-day counterpart, GUESS AIRWASH™ is the future of denim: a cutting- edge technology that recreates the stone washed look through a sustainable lens. GUESS AIRWASH™ largely replaces the water used in stone washing with air and bubbles. The practice – which also eliminates the use of pumice stones – significantly decreases the water and energy consumption of stone washing. The technology was developed by Jeanologia, a long-time partner of GUESS, which retains global exclusivity on GUESS AIRWASH™ for an extensive period of time.

GUESS JEANS encompasses a complete wardrobe with GUESS AIRWASH™ denim as its focal point. The Pre-Fall 2024 Collection debuts eight airwashes across denim pants, denim shirts and denim jackets. Jeans appear in three fits for women (skinny, mom, midrise straight) and four for men (skinny, slim, straight, relaxed). Informed by archival GUESS designs spanning the 1980s and ‘90s, the inaugural collection distils the brand’s fundamental identity into a clarified contemporary proposal. Founded in the casual ease at the heart of the Californian lifestyle that seduced the Marciano brothers upon their arrival in America in 1978, the line further refines the wardrobe classics central to the heritage of GUESS: the quintessential tee, the ideal hoodie, the archetypal bomber, the elemental puffer, etcetera.

Modernized in fit, the garments are adorned with graphic archival emblems, and imbued with the cultural and subcultural associations synonymous with the story of GUESS: an ageless nostalgia rooted in its emblematic black- and-white campaigns from the 1980s onwards to the hip-hop community’s affinity for the brand in the early 1990s. With all fabrications made up of organic or recycled materials, GUESS JEANS reinvigorates the brand’s denim- driven history through a young, present-day mindset focused on sustainable manufacturing and authentic fashion. Accessibly priced – denim pants will retail at EUR 89.00. In the 1980s, GUESS made denim fashionable; in the 2020s, GUESS JEANS makes it sustainable.

The mentality is reflected in the generational perspective of Nicolai Marciano, the Creative Director of GUESS JEANS. Born in 1996, he spent his formative years training in the family company under the guidance of his father. In 2016, he propelled the archive-fuelled collaboration between the artist A$AP Rocky and GUESS. An expression of his own familiarisation with the brand’s impact on culture and subculture growing up, GUESS JEANS marks the first commercial project launched by Nicolai Marciano in his broader capacity as Chief New Business Development Officer of GUESS. 42 years after the brand popularised stonewash, the new technology-driven line signifies a full circle for the denim pioneer as it enters the sustainable era of GUESS AIRWASH™.

The GUESS JEANS collection will be available June 2024, in select wholesale and retailers worldwide and online.