When 'jeans' are more than just denim

Read Philip's column every week in the Western Morning News

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THIS may come as a surprise to some, but if you're looking for fashion advice, this column is, generally, not the first place you would turn to. However, a story that broke last week made me realise, rather unusually, that I do have a little bit of insight into a major fashion brand that has suddenly become quite a hot property.

As the father of two daughters, I spent quite a bit of time, on a visit to Boston, Massachusetts, a few years back, hanging around the American Eagle clothes store. Daughter number one had already heard about the brand and knew that, on swanky Newbury Street, Boston, they had a smart shop.

At the time, you could get almost two dollars to the pound, which - my girls told me - made it almost a crime not to stock up on the T-shirts, vests, jeans and jackets on sale. Both my daughters made a major dent in - to be fair - their own bank accounts, buying up so many clothes that we had to invest in a new suitcase for the flight home.

American Eagle's fortunes have dipped, soared and dipped again since then. Perhaps inspired by my daughters, they briefly opened stores in the UK, before retreating back to the US. Most recently, they were on a downward trajectory as a result of Donald Trump's tariffs, since a lot of their stock, while unashamedly Western in style, is actually made in China and the Far East.