The designer denim craze first rose to prominence back in the 1980s, when brands like Jordache and Calvin Klein raised price points by stamping their chic labels on back pockets, transforming

Thanks to today's new and improved premium denim brand category, luxury jeans now cost upward of $200 a pair. One of the first brands to revive and redefine the sector, 7 for All Mankind (often referred to as Seven) launched in 2000 when entrepreneur Peter Koral saw a void in the market and introduced a superior denim product constructed with imported fabrics and innovative treatments.

Since then, countless fashion mavens, editors, and celebrities were seduced by Seven's signature "back-pocket squiggle," with sales hitting the $13 million mark the very first year. The brand has since gone global and continues to enjoy exponential growth each year, with sales estimated at $250 million for 2005 for products sold in over 70 countries.

In recent years, jeans have become an indispensable luxury item—and like any luxury item, the premium denim market has an ebb and flow that rides on back of the economy. Last year, Koral sold a 50 percent stake of 7 for All Mankind to Bear Stearns Merchant Banking—retaining his founder and chairman titles along with his own 50 percent stake—with the goal of expanding the brand's global business.

This was good timing, considering the premium denim category has become completely saturated. According to a recent Slate.com article examining the category, the market for pricey jeans is flattening and will settle at 1 percent of the entire $11 billion denim market.

There's no mistaking this site for anything other than a jeans brand. A dark blue denim backdrop with a clickable rivet appears, and Flash animation displaying various back-pocket designs, studs, and other sundry eventually settle on the image of an ass clad in jeans (natch).

When a gender/product line is chosen, images of models wearing each line of jeans enlarge with each rollover—they call this the fit guide. When a product is chosen, a brief description of the fit appears. A larger image reveals a topless model wearing the selected product. (The images are cropped just above the waist; models for the children's line wear shirts.)

Denim enthusiasts like to view actual measurements, and it would have been easy to include this neglected but important piece of info on this page. One handy detail that is available is the set of clickable wash swatches on the side of the page, so users can view a closeup of the true wash color.

The "Great China Wall" product line gets its own page and story to build an interest in the jeans, but doesn't include product pictures or information—a near tragic omission of information.

About Us includes the company story plus counterfeiting and contact information. The Company page is your standard brand bio without any fanfare. The Counterfeit page outlines details about how 7 for All Mankind constructs the garments, how to tell the difference between real "Sevens" and fakes, areas where fraudulent items are sold, and a link to report counterfeits. The Press Room is a bit more fleshed out, with clickable magazine articles and clips that launch readable pop-up editorial mentions, but lacks press contact information.

For a consumer product, one of the most vital site components is the Where to Buy page, directing users toward purchase information. Users can click on their country of choice but are directed to only a handful of online retailers, merely listing URLs without links—a lost sales opportunity that wouldn't take much effort to correct.

Overall, for such a "hot" brand, the site doesn't fit its quality-brand persona, demonstrating a lack of care and consistency when it comes to content. By overlooking some of the most essential basics, such as detailed product information and direct links to e-tailers (for starters), this brand should be less concerned with testimonials and counterfeiting and more concerned with driving consumers to e-tail with a luxurious, expedient user experience that mirrors their carefully cultivated "premium" brand identity. After all, for the money, there are lots of options out there for a better fit.