• Los Angeles Times, Monday, April 12, 2010 10:44 AM

Tags dangling from the waistbands of the trousers in L.A.'s trendy American Rag Cie boutique show prices as high as $200. But they aren't the creation of the latest hot designer. They're Dockers from Levi Strauss & Co., Adam Tschorn reports.

Dockers, whose managers admit that the brand lost its way somewhere between the '90s and now, is on the offensive again. And what better outfit to wear to battle than khakis? Among the new lines is the K-1 Khaki Collection, which copies the style of an actual WWII U.S. Army-issue trouser, using a heavy-duty cotton twill called "Cramerton cloth" on some styles. Among its features: buttons are burnished, interior seams are taped, and fabrics are washed until they crumple to buttery softness.

"There's a negative perception out there that we have to overcome," admits Karen Riley-Grant, Dockers' new director of global consumer marketing. "It's the idea of the pleated-pant cube-dweller with the blue Oxford and the brown shoe."

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