by Stacey Paretti Rase
Bogalusa native Hugh Hayden met Victoria Vaughn five years ago during Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship filled with music, good times and, ultimately, the creation of a new women’s apparel collection, Big Sway Denim.
Never heard of it, you say? Well, chances are you will soon, as the collection’s fashionable jeans have become quite popular with the Hollywood crowd—donned by celebrities such as Ashley Judd, Joey Lauren Adams, Lindsay Lohan, Aisha Tyler and Nicole Ritchie. Big Sway brings down-home luxury to life, in jeans that combine a fresh and seductive look with an incredible fit. The look has a distinct Southern influence and a Western flair—a style whose popularity is quickly surpassing even the boho chic trend.
“It is our common love for all things Southern and fashionable that formed the genesis of Big Sway Denim,” said Victoria, from Chicago. (She was working there earlier this year as associate producer on “The Break Up,” which stars her brother, silver-screen heartthrob Vince Vaughn, and Jennifer Aniston.) “There is something inexplicable about the South that gets in your blood and soaks into your soul. It never leaves you. It’s something you are given, and we’re giving it to everyone through our unique denim.”
Even the names of the various styles of the jean carry on the theme, with each inspired by the South’s great dames. There’s the Emmylou, a skinny peg-leg jean meant to fit nicely into a boot; the Lucille, which has a relaxed fit, meant for movin’; the Pearl, a mean, lean boot-cut jean; the Delia, with a boyfriend-style cut; and the Tammy, the ultimate classic white jean.
Hugh and Victoria teamed up with embroidery designer Kimberly Faith Green to come up with a special embroidery design for each style. “Our entire design is inspired by Kimberly’s work,” says Hugh. “Her belt buckle designs were already really popular. She has a great eye for what’s new and hot.” The result of their collaboration is the signature “S” logo that appears on the front-right leg panel, just below the pocket on each style. Various embroidered designs can be found on the back pockets, in coordinating thread colors.
Big Sway’s promotional materials describe the jeans thusly: “The waistband curves the body perfectly with a dignified yet sexy back rise and a flatteringly low front rise. The yolk and seams flawlessly shape your body, adding lift in the back and slimming the hips. The overall silhouette is long, lean and seductive.” I got a pair for myself—the Lucille, thank you very much—so that I could describe the fit in laymen’s terms. Basically, the waist is cut low enough that my preteen daughter won’t make fun of me, but high enough to sit in at PTA meetings and not reveal your undergarments. They’re not too tight, and the denim is really soft.
Hugh credits the denim’s texture to a couple of factors. First, Big Sway uses only premium fabric. Some is imported from Italy and Japan, but Hugh stresses that all of the company’s manufacturing is done in the United States. “You just can’t get the right sizing and fit [elsewhere] like you can here,” he says. Secondly, the company takes pride in the work that goes into distressing the fabric, an intense process of hand grinding and sanding. “You wouldn’t even recognize true denim’s original color,” Hugh points out, noting that just about every jean on the market has its color manufactured.
And with Big Sway, even the denim colors have sassy Southern names: Delta Darling, Memphis It Girl, Southern Debutante, Red Neck Riviera and NOLA—a name not instantly recognized by West Coast wearers, I’m sure.
Big Sway’s popularity has boomed over the past twelve months, and Hugh isn’t shy about concealing his excitement. “It’s been kind of crazy,” he says. “People ask if there’s a denim bubble, but denim is classic America. When foreign women come here, they always want to buy American jeans. The average American woman owns seven or eight pairs of jeans—and that’s just average,” he stresses.
Recent growth in denim sales has been very aggressive, indeed. In 2003, sales of women’s jeans were $4.5 billion, and the projected sales increase for 2004 was $4.67 billion. Amazingly, the actual sales for that year came in at $6.5 billion! “At this point, it seems there’s no limit. And we expect the sales increase to continue through 2006,” says Hugh. He attributes his own product’s popularity to a competitive price point, a good rapport with boutique management spanning from Mandeville to Boston to San Francisco, and the incredible power of positive word of mouth. Of course, having your line worn by Hollywood’s hottest doesn’t hurt!
The company’s success has Hugh splitting his time between Los Angeles and Madisonville, but he still considers St. Tammany home. After graduating from LSU, where he acquired the nickname, and now company moniker, “Big Sway,” Hugh got his start in business at his family’s northshore company, Delta Printing. He worked in the division that manufactured a private label apparel of tops, including t-shirts, polo shirts, denim shirts and denim jackets. After two years, he started thinking of launching a denim collection of his own.
Hugh certainly didn’t forget his roots during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. When Big Sway’s New Orleans warehouse was devastated by the storm’s wind and flood waters, he quickly jumped into action to salvage the merchandise. He transported more than 1,000 pairs of jeans—a retail value of $189,000—to an area washhouse to be cleaned and dried. He then donated every pair to the Louisiana Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, which distributed the clothing to those most in need. “It’s only natural to help the great people of the New Orleans and Gulf Coast areas.
These people have no clothes and no homes,” Hugh says, with the same fervor he has for every project he takes on. “It will take some time for things to get back to normal, but this area of the country is very special, and we will bounce back stronger than ever.”
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