Ooh La La! From Sasson to Calvin Klein, These 8 Designer Jeans Brands Will Take You Back to the ’80s

Jeans have always been a classic staple of the all-American wardrobe, but in the ’80s they went from utilitarian basics to sexy and stylish must-haves that defined the era. While jeans brands like Levi’s and Wrangler had been around for years, the glamour and excess of the ’80s saw a rise in designer denim labels, all of which created covetable high-waist, skintight jeans complete with conspicuous branding on the back pocket.

From Calvin Klein to Gitano, here’s a look back at the most popular designer ’80s jeans brands, along with the stories behind them and retro commercials that will take you right back.

1. Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein jeans skyrocketed to popularity thanks to a provocative 1980 ad campaign featuring a 15-year-old Brooke Shields cooing the immortal words “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” The ad caused a media frenzy, and while featuring an underage model in a suggestive role was certainly questionable, the campaign made Calvin Klein a household name, and his jeans, with their signature looped stitching on the back pockets, became the most iconic pants of the early ’80s.

2. Guess

Guess was famous for black-and-white ads that made jeans look like the height of chic. Featuring supermodels like Claudia Schiffer (and, later on in the ’90s, Anna Nicole Smith), Guess ads often showed their jeans as the foundation for a revealing outfit (think denim on the bottom, bra on top), and the triangle logo on the back pocket was an ’80s status symbol.

3. Gloria Vanderbilt

Gloria Vanderbilt was a posh socialite who embodied midcentury glamour. In the late ’70s, long before celebrity clothing lines became commonplace, she launched her eponymous line of jeans, paving the way for the designer denim craze of the ’80s. Gloria Vanderbilt jeans featured the designer’s name on the back pocket and a small embroidered swan on the front, and by wearing them, ’80s ladies could channel her wealth and elegance without breaking the bank. On top of that, a 1980 commercial claimed they fit “like the skin on a grape.”

4. Jordache

Jordache jeans were instantly recognizable for their embroidered horse logo, and while the brand started in the late ’70s, and made a splash with ads featuring topless models in their jeans, they peaked in the ’80s with commercials that made “the Jordache look” synonymous with flirty fun.

5. Sasson

Sasson bridged the gap between jocks and fashionistas, and during their early days in 1979, they had a commercial featuring the New York Rangers wearing their jeans. By the ’80s, the brand’s “Ooh la la, Sasson” jingle was firmly lodged in everyone’s heads, and their ads spotlighted a mix of stylish girls-next-door as well as musical icons like Elton John and Roy Orbison.

6. Bonjour

Bonjour was known for their “French style” jeans that promised their wearers European flair. Their over-the-top commercials featured heavily made-up models vamping in cinematic tableaus and presented their jeans (emblazoned with Bonjour on the back pocket, natch) as the perfect thing to wear for a sensual night out.

7. Sergio Valente

Sergio Valente was founded during the early days of ’70s designer denim, and while their sophisticated style remained popular throughout the ’80s, the brand was hiding a funny secret: Sergio Valente wasn’t a real person, and the Italian-sounding name was made up solely for marketing purposes.

8. Gitano

At one point in the ’80s, Gitano was the largest manufacturer of women’s designer jeans in the U.S, and by the ’90s they had 100 stores. Their brand name came from the Spanish word for gypsy, and their jeans were meant to signal free-spirited fun—until they went bankrupt in 1993.

Can you still buy ’80s jeans today?

’80s designer jeans are readily available on resale sites like eBay and Etsy, and in recent years they’ve made a major comeback as younger generations have come to reject low-rise silhouettes and embrace the high-waisted styles that reigned supreme in the decade.

In 2003, the high-waisted, straight-leg jeans of the ’80s and ’90s were infamously mocked in a Saturday Night Live sketch that called them “mom jeans,” but today many brands actually use the term as a selling point to show off jeans with vintage vibes—which means denim has truly come full circle!

The renewed interest in ’80s styles has recently led designers like Calvin Klein and Guess to introduce new jeans inspired by their earlier styles, and while Bonjour, Sergio Valente and Gitano are no longer around, Gloria Vanderbilt and Jordache are still going strong, and Sasson just relaunched this year. There’s no doubt we’re in an ’80s jeans renaissance—now we’ll just have to see if acid wash makes a comeback.