Seven For All Mankind Tracking Success in Ready-to-Wear

Seven For All Mankind is tracking success as it evolves into a ready-to-wear player.

The brand, which hired Nicola Brognano as its creative director last December, has shown a notable uplift in its wholesale performance, adding new accounts globally and wholesaling the rtw into its major U.S. denim accounts.

Over the past several years, Seven For All Mankind has also combined its U.S. and European operations into one global organization.

“Last year was a phenomenal year and this year will be better,” predicted Sacha Gomez de Zamora Ford, the brand’s global president, in an interview during a visit to its New York headquarters.

Gomez de Zamora Ford, who divides his time between offices in Milan and Mendrisio, Switzerland, attributes that success to simplifying the brand’s business and going from two organizations to one. When the brand was previously owned by VF Corp., there were two companies — Europe and the U.S. — with different products and design tools. Following COVID-19, the leadership was unified, and when Gomez de Zamora Ford rejoined the company at the end of 2023 after a previous 14-year run there, the first thing he did was make the organization global, align the product calendars, design and product development. Delta Galil acquired Seven For All Mankind in 2016.

Currently the U.S. — and Canada — is Seven For All Mankind’s biggest market and accounts for 60 percent of the business. “The U.S. is much more dynamic so you need to be fast in the U.S. to capitalize on bestsellers,” he said.

New accounts include Antonia in Italy and Nubian in Japan, and existing partners such as Bloomingdale’s will be adding ready-to-wear to their existing denim buy. Seven For All Mankind will also be returning to Nordstrom with both denim and rtw. Of its current wholesale market, 37 percent are new clients.

The brand’s biggest accounts in the U.S. are Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. “Obviously, Saks is a bit of a hit or miss in the past years,” he said.

Seven For All Mankind experienced a 6 percent growth rate in sales for 2025 with a 69 percent increase in earnings before interest and taxes over the same period. In the first quarter of 2026, the brand has seen 9 percent growth year-over-year, with a 75 percent profit gain. New initiatives include product innovation in denim and rtw, expanding margins through premium brand elevation and investment in marketing to elevate the brand’s look and feel.

Seven For All Mankind, which was launched in 2000, is often credited with creating the premium denim segment — the $200 jeans. The first big challenge came from J Brand, and then a plethora of companies entered the market which are still here such as Citizens of Humanity, Mother, Frame, Paige and AG, Ford said.

Discussing the industry overall, he said first came the jeans explosion, then the bags, shoes, outerwear, sneakers and luxury apparel.

Talking about the company’s decision to launch rtw, Gomez de Samora Ford said that a premium denim specialist can only grow to a certain level. He said that premium denim as a category in Europe “is a relatively small market” because you don’t have many department stores for distribution.

“You don’t have the unified market that you have in the States. The European Union is the biggest single market. It’s around 450 million consumers versus I think 350 million in the States. It’s richer I think than in the U.S. or China. However, because you’ve got 17, 18 nationalities with different cultures, different economics, different legal systems, it becomes much tougher to scale versus a China or a U.S., where if it works,” you’re simply able to replicate it.

Having one’s own stores is a key Seven For All Mankind strategy both in Europe and the U.S.

He said that more than 50 percent of their business is actually direct-to-consumer, and 50 percent is wholesale. Of the 50 percent wholesale, 30 percent is e-commerce. “So why it’s important to get away from being a premium denim company is that growth is limited. At some point, you have to overexpose yourself. Once you overexpose, you become less relevant or less desirable versus other brands, and therefore it’s a difficult business to be in,” he said.

“We’re still after 26 years, the most international brand, and probably still one of the biggest brands out there,” he said.

He noted that in Asia, premium denim is nonexistent. “Because in Asia, they are young money, even though obviously they’re maturing. They’re interested in fashion, they’re interested in desirability. There’s no need for an expensive denim brand,” he said. Lee is probably the biggest brand in Asia, he said.

“Obviously wholesale is not that developed in Asia. That’s more of a U.S. or European concept. Once you go to Asia, it’s more of a retail concept, and that’s why you need to develop the ready-to-wear piece because otherwise, you’re not able to maintain the prices, the rents you have to pay with only one category,” he said.

Brognano joined as creative director of Seven For All Mankind last December, having previously been creative director of Blumarine from 2020 to 2023.

“What he has brought to us was a non-denim point of view,” Gomez de Samora Ford said. “So if you look at denim, what you probably see is what our agency called a sea of sameness. Whether you’re talking about Madewell, Levi’s, Citizens, us, the denim iconography is denim on denim with a white T-shirt, It’s very Marlon Brando, it’s very James Dean. So we all think that we’re doing it differently in a special way, but for the consumer, we are interchangeable.

“What we’re trying to do is replicating the luxury play book,” he said. Louis Vuitton is mostly a bag manufacturer and is spending most of their money on creating a world to differentiate their accessories from the rest of the world, which in the end is what companies like Gucci and Loewe are doing, he said. “They are investing heavily to make sure the right people are wearing it, and to make sure that their bags remain aspirational,” he said.

Last February, Brognano introduced the brand’s first ready-to-wear collection. At the time, Brognano told WWD, “We are a premium denim house so my goal is to create a wardrobe around denim for real women,” adding she is “more mature and grown-up. She’s a super cool, rich girl.”

Asked where they’re seeing the most traction in their rtw, Gomez de Samora Ford said knits, hoodies, T-shirts, sweaters, outerwear, wool and leathers. Fifty percent of the rtw is made in China and 50 percent in Italy. For the fourth quarter, they plan to introduce bags for their stores.

Seven For All Mankind is renovating its SoHo store at 394 West Broadway, which will open by Sept. 1. It will be their first flagship designed by Perron Studios, one of the top architectural firms. It is about 3,000 square feet.

Seven For Al Mankind also plans to open a new flagship in Regent Street in London in October. “It’s the same concept done in a completely different way.” They already have a 1,000-square-foot store on two levels, which they’ll close and move one block down to a 2,500-square-foot store on two levels. They are also refurbishing their flagship in Harbor City in Hong Kong.

Overall Seven for all Mankind has about 45 freestanding stores in the U.S.

He said the stores have historically been transactional. “Obviously we need to bring the brand vision, experience, storytelling to life.…It’s a new concept so obviously we’re all excited about whether we got it right. But it’s looking incredible. It’s a beautiful building at the back of Double RL and Gucci.”

Ford said the business is 60 percent women’s and 40 percent men’s. “The only category that we are definitely aggressive in growing is the ready-to-wear and that’s why we did the runway show,” he said. At present, denim accounts for 80 percent of the business, and rtw is 20 percent.

Seven For All Mankind’s spring 2027 show will be Sept. 12 at 3 p.m. at the Starrett-Lehigh Building.

Asked who the Seven For All Mankind customer is, he said, it’s probably a 35-plus market. “Young kids are not so [interested]. I would say they’re not that interested in premium denim as a category because either they get their coolness from cheaper offers, or there’s been a lot of denim done by luxury brands, Dior, Stella.” He said the young kids are wearing Resurgence and Zara, and they’re wearing jeans that are $99 and below.

Talking about current styles, Ford said it’s all about straight. He said barrel came and barrel went, and barrel came back. “And right now it’s all about straight. It can be a slightly lower rise straight or a slightly higher rise straight. It can be a slightly tighter straight, a slightly wider straight, but I think we’re moving away from let’s say wider,” he said. They’re also starting to see a resurgence of the skinnies as a whole early 2000s vibe.

He said as comfort continues to be important, it’s more of a 98 percent cotton, 2 percent stretch. “Obviously with skinnies, there’ll be a return to power stretches, but let’s say right now, it’s 98/2, which we call comfort denim, or we call a luxe vintage fabric.”

Ford said that at their level, sustainability is a must-have, “because sustainability in itself is actually the avoidance or the elimination of waste. So because of where we produce and because of the quantities we produce, we are a sustainable brand,” he said.

He said that Chloe Sevigny continues as their brand ambassador throughout 2026.