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_ * Flagship launched
WATERSTONE'S BOOKSELLERS
it may not leap to mind as the ilrst thing Edinburgh needs, but on 0ec1 the city will acquire its third Waterstone’s bookshop. It'll be more than just another shop, however; with a capacity larger than the two existing Edinburgh stores combined and a stock oi around 150,000 titles, it is intended as the company’s Scottish ilagship.
“We’re aiming to reiiect the tact that Edinburgh is a European capital city,’ explains manager Matthew Perren. ‘Whlle it has some excellent
bookshops, it doesn’t have the type oi bookshop you'd expect to lind in London, Paris or Berlin.’
it’s not just a question oi size, either. As well as providing a high-quality general service, the new shop will concentrate on building up certain key areas which have already proved successiul in the other two shops. ‘We’re going to have the largest selection oi Scottish books in the country; a lot oi time and energy has gone into researching that,’ Perren says. ‘We’li be doing languages in a bigger way than Waterstone’s have ever done, and going head-on iorthe j academic market.’ An ambitious events programme is also planned, with Annlstead Maupin coniinned ior February; the shop also boasts an electronic link with a warehouse in Ohio, enabling books to be ordered and received irom the US within ten days.
‘I think the important thing is that this shop will oiier the scope to do what we've always needed to do in this city,‘ says Matthew Perren. “We’ve got the potential to make it iar and away the best bookshop in Scotland.’ (Sue Wilson)
The new Waterstone’s, at 128 Princes Street, opens on 1 Dec at noon.
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Zip (lode 501
Levi are the latest newcomer to the ever expanding Glasgow fashion scene. The original Beatrice Colin checks them out.
It’s August in Warsaw and hundreds of people queue outside a brand new shop. Hungry eyes gaze in expectantly and clammy fingers hold wads of ziotys. Not for bread, vodka or the new Mnaga and Zdorp album, but for a pair of red-tabbed, pre-faded, 5015 Levis.
Here in the West, we’re a bit more blasé. When the Original Levi's Store opens in Glasgow later this month there won’t be queues round the block but for the hip, hyped and upwardly mobile, the name on your denim begins with L and ends in l.
Invented by a Jewish emigre from Bavaria in the 18505 when he went west to find his fortune, the first pairs of jeans were made for gold miners. Levi Strauss used the toughest fabric
he could find, serge de Nimes, and his work trousers were made to last. Copper rivets were added when miners complained that when they stuffed nuggets into their pockets the seams ripped, and the double line of orange stitching on the back pockets was introduced as a style feature to symbolise the American eagle. Named after the number of the warehouse in which the fabric was stored in New York, the design of
5015 has hardly changed in 100 years. Levi’s invention made him a multi-millionaire and his jeans went on to be the staple-wear of railway workers, lumberjacks, cowboys, in fact anyone who was working or travelling in the new world.
Fashion historians point out that yesterday’s workwear is tomorrow’s fashion and jeans were adopted by American college students in the 19405 and 505. As teen-culture exploded, everyone who was anyone was seen wearing them including Marlon Brando James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. In the late 60$ jeans were worn flared and customised a la Woodstock and flower-power, but by the early 80$, jeans were old-fashioned, hippy garb.
With one of the most sophisticated marketing campaigns ever staged, Levi’s Original 5015 were re-launched in 1985 with two classic adverts. Featuring the music of Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, two chunky semi-nude male models, a laundrette and a bath, the commercials made a huge impression and the soundtracks leapt into the charts. Sales shot up by 800 per cent. Since then Levi jeans have kept their place as market leader with the help of more bronzed torsos and classic soul sounds. Faded, ripped, customised or coloured, they are still looked upon as ‘the’ jeans in which to be seen.
Now expanding all over the new
Europe, Levi’s Original Stores stock a range of jeans, Western-style shirts and jackets. Their 1993 collection features darker and moodier colours and narrower leg widths. Like them or loathe them, Levi’s have come to symbolise the pioneering spirit of America. To wear them is to zip into a legend. (Beatrice Colin)
The Original Levi’s Store will be Opening on Argyle Street, Glasgow at the beginning of December.
80 The List 2() November- 3 Dcccmhcr 1992