Kellwood Co. introduced a new brand, City Blues, a women’s collection inspired by city life at attainable price points for fall 2025.

The brand, which features elevated essentials and a strong focus on denim, was shipped to 200 points of sale this month including Nordstrom, Dillard’s, Von Maur, Boscov’s as well as Stitch Fix. The collection is geared to women ages 25 to 35 who are balancing careers and families.

In an interview, Henry Thervil, division head, sales and strategic planning at Kellwood, said the collection was in development for almost a year. City Blues is part of Kellwood’s branded division that includes Democracy and Wit & Wisdom, two lines that have shown compounded annual growth over 10 percent the last 10 years, said Thervil, who leads all three brands. Democracy, in fact, is the sixth largest national denim brand, according to Circana, formerly NPD.

Kellwood’s other business does private label for such retailers as Walmart, Target and Kohl’s.

“I think the genesis of this whole concept really came about because a lot of department stores came to us and said, ‘Hey, what we’re looking for is a fashion brand. We’re looking for a younger customer, and we’re looking for opening price points. What do you have here in-house? Or what would you suggest that we buy?” said Thervil. He said stores were looking for another brand that could sit with Democracy and Wit & Wisdom that would be more of a fashion play, but with opening price points.

City Blues has an average price point of $65. The collection is designed by Kunal Shah, executive vice president of product and design.

Thervil said that their target customer shops in department stores and on Tik Tok and Amazon, and is inspired by social media. They started building this line and wanted to tell great stories. “So every single month, we go to a different location to tell the story there. Storytelling is a really important part of it, the outfitting is also a really big part of what we do here, as far as telling the story within every one of the deliveries,” said Thervil.

Shah said there’s a big focus on denim, and it’s all about the wash and the fit. “We don’t have many tricks,” he said. He said these jeans would go for $220 if they were a premium brand. “It fits like premium denim,” said Shah, noting the size range is 2-16. Knits are sized from XS to XL.

It turns out the City Blues name was one that Kellwood owned. The logo is a modern take on a cityscape, said Shah.

Each of the fall deliveries are pinned to a particular city, such as A Day in Paris, New York Escape and London Calling. “This is almost like traveling vicariously around the world,” said Thervil. City Blues will have three deliveries this fall, with about 30 pieces in each delivery. The first delivery was Aug. 1, the next is Sept. 1 and the third delivery is Oct. 1.

The brand will have its own Instagram presence and web site. City Blues hired a marketing and advertising company called Ruckus for the branding, launch of the Web site and social media. “It’s a young, fun team that’s really developing the social media aspect with Instagram, and they’ll be moving into TikTok,” said Thervil.

City Blues manufactures its denim in China and Cambodia. “Yes, sourcing has been a challenge. This year was a roller coaster. We have great partners,” said Thervil. “Sourcing is a concern globally at this point, and it’s changing every week,” added Shah.

Thervil said they have great sourcing partners who are “partnering with us on a lot of the tariff issues.”

City Blues’ denim retails from $59.50 to $79.50; woven tops are $59.50 to $69.50, sweaters are $59.50 to $79.50, blazers are $79.50 to $89.50, and outerwear is $89.50 to $99.50.

Among some of the key looks are denim jeans with side braiding, an ivory cotton crochet sweater, a color-blocked sweater, an aviator jacket, cardigan with whip stitching, barrel jeans, and faux cashmere sweaters.

Shah noted that their denim is $20 less expensive that the status denim brands. Shah noted that the fit is modern and missy. The brand will also have a petites and large size offering.

“The response from everyone we showed it to was just amazing,” Thervil said. “They saw craftsmanship and execution, and there’s a white space for this particular brand. It’s modern, fashion forward and urban inspired with price points that are very attainable for the customer. Our goal is to capture a small percent of a very big market,” Thervil said.