Miss Sixty's Brand Director Terry Xu on reclaiming denim's top spot: “We need to get back to the number one position”

Miss Sixty was born out of a gap nobody in the industry was filling: denim dedicated to women, at a time when the category was still designed almost entirely around men. More than three decades on, Terry Xu, Brand and Global Marketing Director, is channeling that same pioneering spirit to reclaim the brand's former global reign. In an exclusive interview with FashionUnited, Xu talks about that comeback. "At one point, Miss Sixty was the world’s leading denim brand dedicated to women," he says. "I feel like we need to get back to that position."

A gap in denim

"Given the era that Miss Sixty was founded in, it was a time that denim was almost restricted towards menswear," Xu explains. Womenswear denim existed, but no brand had dedicated its research to it specifically, and Xu says that gap is what the brand's founders saw: technology and fabric innovation going to waste because it was never applied to women's fits. "We were the first one to introduce skinny jeans and flare jeans," he says, made possible by combining stretch materials with cotton to create an entirely new denim category.

That same instinct now drives Miss Sixty's sustainability work. Through the Future Denim Lab, run with Central Saint Martins, the brand is pushing into fabric innovation as much as sourcing. "Denim is something you have an association with rigidness and longevity, as well as being stiff and kind of hot," Xu says, "but we've been doing, for example, silk denim to create almost like a summertime denim, or even more wintry cashmere denim. We were one of the first in the industry to really push that forward."

Playfulness, pop art and a menswear label called Energy

Staying relevant to new generations, Xu says, comes down to two things: cultural relevancy through movements like music, and keeping the brand's DNA intact while reinterpreting it with culturally relevant artists. That DNA has three parts: "playfulness, sexiness, and pop art," rooted in the 1960s and 1970s. "Fashion for a long time has been very still," he says. "It's been trying to be unapproachable. I feel like the people we want to associate with are unapologetically themselves." That shows up in details as small as the size of a button or a thread, deliberately "slightly disproportionate, in a playful, fun, this is not so serious way."

The brand's roots explain why music runs so deep. Miss Sixty grew out of Energy, a unisex menswear line through which the Sixty Group was originally founded. "The founder was very much into pop art, and his design was quite ahead of its time, very unisex," Xu says. Female customers were already buying into Energy before the brand addressed them directly, prompting a dedicated womenswear line. Before it became Miss Sixty, the brand briefly carried another name: Memphis, after Elvis. Lady Gaga performed at Miss Sixty's first New York store before she was "the Lady Gaga," Xu notes, and the brand continues working with emerging pop artists, including creating stage looks for Blackpink's Jennie. "Supporting up and coming musicians is something that we really want to ensure," he says, adding that Miss Sixty sees itself as building the same kind of shared memory a concert or festival creates.

Bella Hadid, the muse who became the ambassador

Miss Sixty is selective about who it works with: "The criteria is that their fan base and who they're associated with are ones that are strongly tied in with the brand's value and identity," Xu says. Bella Hadid is a strong example. “Bella connected with Miss Sixty’s brand ethos long before we partnered. It’s a mutual fit: our timeless denim culture complements her signature style, and her authentic voice helps more people discover what Miss Sixty stands for,” he says.

"Bella is without a doubt almost the queen of streetwear, and she's always been a long-time fan and a muse for Miss Sixty." Her habit of wearing archival pieces, Xu says, helped fuel a wider archive trend and a younger generation's search for vintage Miss Sixty.

A supply chain built like a denim swatch card

Operating across very different markets comes with trade-offs, Xu says. "As we expand, it's easier to lose your central direction," which is why Miss Sixty keeps a centralised hub its teams report back to, with regular meetings to keep brand value aligned, "especially during this current cultural moment where every country seems to be more independent, less globalised." That same logic extends to sourcing: “It's really trying to take what is the best out there," Xu says, in service of giving customers the best value for their money. The approach is also why Miss Sixty's headquarters sits where it does: "Guangzhou is arguably the textile hub of China, which is then one of the textile hubs of the world as well."

On business model, Miss Sixty leans deliberately retail-heavy. "Retail is the only channel that can really ensure that the brand value and identity remains," Xu says, contrasting that with Europe, which he describes as a more wholesale-driven market.

The comeback: reclaiming number one

Reclaiming the number one position, Xu says, means putting denim research, styling and campaigns "everything surrounding denim", at the centre of the brand, while reconnecting with global markets and the creative forces tied to its identity. Denim is the area Xu wants Miss Sixty to lead, alongside a deeper tie to music: "I think music is one of the things that we really want to be super connected towards," he says, pointing to how artists now wear luxury brands to events like the Met Gala. "Miss Sixty wants to be there, with the right talent."