An effortlessly cool Nick Kamen strolls into a launderette, strips to his boxer shorts and washes his jeans in front of a stunned clientele, soundtracked by Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine. The 1985 Levi’s 501 advert made a star of its model, and presented an image in keeping with the clothing brand’s all-American style.
But could that deep-seated association with the US prove an achilles heel? Last week, in its UK accounts, Levi’s issued a warning that “rising anti-Americanism as a consequence of the Trump tariffs and governmental policies” could affect its sales in Britain. The idea is not unique – attitudes towards Tesla in the UK and Europe deteriorated when Elon Musk was closely associated with Trump. However, the Levi’s warning raises the question – could fashion become the latest sector affected by anti-American sentiment outside the US?
Retail and brand experts are divided. Achim Berg, the founder of the Germany-based fashion and luxury thinktank FashionSights, was surprised by the Levi’s warning – he sees the company as a different case from something such as Tesla or Amazon, which are “directly associated with the US [government]”. This is in contrast to other companies. “I haven’t seen any reports about people holding back on Apple, holding back on Netflix. If you think about it, we are all using plenty of US products and services every day.”
However, Catherine Shuttleworth, a retail consultant and the chief executive of Savvy Marketing, does think there is a risk. “People are thinking twice about going on holiday to America and about buying some of those products,” she says. “If I was [a retailer of an] all-American product, I would be thinking about how I presented myself differently in terms of my advertising and marketing.”
Any sign of an anti-Americanism trend would cause a headache for an industry benefiting from the popularity of Americana and preppy looks.
Labels such as Hollister, Ralph Lauren and Brandy Melville are popular – the last opened a new store in London in June.
Hollister’s parent company, Abercrombie & Fitch, posted a 12% rise in profit in its Europe, the Middle East and Africa division in 2024 and searches for Polo Ralph Lauren increased 27% on the resale app Depop between July and August.
Alex Goat, the chief executive of the youth-focused creative agency Livity, says this look plugs into an idealised version of the US that is served in popular TV shows such as The Summer I Turned Pretty and My Life with the Walter Boys. “They are not reflecting the political issues that are going on in the States at the moment. They’re the same halcyon American days that we all probably thought about when we were growing up,” she says. “If that’s what you think America is, then where’s the challenge to buy from brands like that?”
Emma Davidson, the fashion features director of Dazed Digital, agrees this look is not a direct correlation with an all-American patriotism. “We call it preppy and varsity style but it feels one step removed from what it once stood for,” she says.
Experts do, however, agree that overt patriotism is unlikely to export well. “If you were Levi’s you wouldn’t be what you’ve been leaning into [stars and stripes],” Shuttleworth says. “You might use influencers that are not as American perhaps.”
Davidson points to a cultural example. “It surprised me that Beyoncé was plastered in stars and stripes throughout the Cowboy Carter tour,” she says. “It felt really out of step with what’s going on in the world.”
While these are global brands, appealing to US customers is an integral part of their business. “The domestic markets for some of these brands absolutely blow their international sales out of the water,” Shuttleworth says. “They will have to think strategically about who they appeal to in the short term.” With tariffs in place on imports, there is also an opportunity here – with consumers potentially shifting, as Trump hopes, to “buying American”.
Patriotic and conservative marketing can play out well with consumers who voted for Trump, as has been proven with American Eagle’s US campaign with the blond, blue-eyed Sydney Sweeney opining that she has “great genes”. With an outcry on social media, one TikTok user described it as “dog whistle to the rise of conservatism in this country”. True to form, Trump praised Sweeney on social media.
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Rather than this having a negative impact on the brand, American Eagle’s share price increased 25% last week in the aftermath of an upbeat quarterly update – with sales decreasing only 1% compared with 5% in the previous quarter. Its chief executive, Jay Schottenstein, credited the Sweeney ad, arguing it helped “an uptick in customer awareness, engagement and comparable sales”.
In Canada, hostility towards US products is growing – with reports of shoppers turning American goods upside down on supermarket shelves so they can be avoided by fellow shoppers, and a slump in sales of Jack Daniel’s, a brand that has Americana central to its marketing.
Could a similar boycott happen with fashion brands in the UK? Shuttleworth is sceptical. “What cost are our principles?” she says. “We say one thing but we do another. I don’t like Donald Trump very much but if Bobbi Brown launches a new range of makeup tomorrow, don’t think I won’t buy it because it’s American. I’ll self-justify.”
Berg argues that consumer awareness around brands is less than the media suggests. “In my experience, customer reaction is typically not as direct and not as consequential and consistent as people tend to think,” he says. “You could see that during the ‘wokeness’ wave, during the sustainability wave. Despite a certain reputation, consumers were still in love with certain brands that were not famous for being very woke or being very sustainable.”
Goat says this is particularly true with young people. “It’s like ‘the world is burning, and I want to act on that but I still want to be able to buy clothes that are affordable.’” (She is quick to point out this is not the first generation of young people with such a paradox – “younger people are always more politically involved and still also want to look good and feel good and do that on a budget,” she says.)
While Goat does not totally rule out a distancing from American brands, she suggests that young people in the UK are more likely to boycott those with links to Israel because of its government’s actions in Gaza. “It’s a humanitarian crisis versus a very difficult political situation.”
If a significant boycott of US brands does materialise, Shuttleworth believes it would spread online. “It’s like: ‘How can we hurt Trump? Probably only in the economy,’” she says. “If enough people get behind it, it becomes a thing; social media can grow really quickly.”
