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Benjamin Talley Smith knows a thing or two about perfecting a pair of jeans. For the past 20 years, the denim expert and designer has worked with everyone from Khaite to J.Crew. Now, Talley Smith just collaborated with Gigi Hadid’s brand, Guest in Residence, on a new denim line.
For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Talley Smith shares what it was like collaborating with Hadid, the denim trends he is predicting for fall, and more.
To read excerpts from the conversation, scroll below.
You work across so many different brands. I would imagine that, obviously, every brand has a different point of view and set of goals and what they want to achieve from a design perspective. For example, with J.Crew, am I correct in saying it’s a newer collaboration?
Yeah, the jeans just launched.
What did they want from working with you?
I’ve known Olympia [Gayot] for I mean 100 years. I’ve been friends with her probably since 2006.
She actually approached me to do J.Crew before Madewell.
She allowed me to pick new fabrics, update the branding, do all of the things that I do.
Redo all the washes. [I] brought in a fit technician that I’ve used forever who’s amazing, so we were able to revamp it.
Do you have a favorite pair or style or two from the collection?
The Zoe Barrel, which is a traditional barrel jean.
There’s also something called the Jessie Straight.
Olympia [Gayot] sent me a bunch of her jeans that she wears all the time or that she would style with, and so we built a jean based on that, which is really fun.
You also have a very exciting new denim line launch with Gigi Hadid’s brand, Guest in Residence. Talk to me about this collaboration. Why did she approach you? What parameters did she give you, and what was your starting point?
She is wonderful. Honestly, it’s been great to work on this project. Obviously, Guest in Residence is an established brand already.
She’s done an amazing job. All of the cashmere is amazing.
They wanted to do this category extension, but they wanted to do it the right time.
We probably talked for a year plus before we even started to work together, and it was just sort of trying to figure out how we could do it, what the team setup would be, and then when we decided to press go, it was almost a year ago probably that we started.
She’s just a whimsical person to be around and very driven in her direction for the brand and that it’s so much built around what she wants to wear or what she wants her customer to wear.
Can you walk me through some of the details about each fit and what purpose they would serve in someone’s wardrobe, starting with the Traveler Jean?
That’s the super-drapey, very casual, great jean.
You can wear it in a car. You can wear it on a plane.
It’s cotton lyocell, and lyocell is like a wood pulp fabric. Basically, it’s sustainable, but it gives the drape to the denim, which is really nice.
What about the Everyday Jean?
Everyday Jean is kind of your classic straight leg. It has a cuff to it.
It has that sort of front shelf that you get from an old men’s jean a little bit, but it fits much better.
That was one where she was like, “Oh my god!” She’s like, “I love it.” Then she cuffed it and put it with loafers, and I was like, “That’s it. That’s perfect.”
I’m wondering if you can give us sort of big picture, broad strokes for 2027 fall?
Low-rise.
To me, there is so much low-rise coming everywhere, and there is different versions of it.
There is the on-body, low-rise, Paris Hilton world.
It’s like a little bit more in the younger demographic still, but we launched a jean called the Conforti for Khaite like a week ago. It’s that low-rise boot slash flare.
Then there’s a jean called the Karo, which sits lower on the hip and is low-rise.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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