Premium denim. Designer jeans. It’s not what you call them but how much you paid that determines the status of the blue pants with distinctive labels and stitching on the back pocket.

Those in the know can spot a pair of Sevens across a room — and not just because of the fit.

At first, regular buyers say, it’s a brand thing. Then, when they squeeze into the high-priced jeans, they realize the other difference: They were made with a woman’s shape in mind, and often with a bit of Spandex woven through the blue to give when and where they need to.

The industry classifies premium denim as anything above $75. The reality is these jeans will set you back about $150 to $200 and can go up to $325 in Lincoln.

Betsy Sperling, 24, is a premium denim convert. Before she bought her first pair of Joe’s Jeans three years ago, she had a closetful of sale jeans. Some fit, most didn’t. None of them were “the perfect jeans,” she said.

Sperling works part time and is finishing a degree in education, so money is always an issue, she said. “I don’t have much for clothes.”

But she believes buying better jeans — ones she actually likes and wears all of the time — costs less in the long run.

“I just cleaned my closet,” she said. “I got rid of the ‘sale’ jeans. I have a lot more space.”

Only five or six premium pairs hang where about 30 pairs used to be.

Sperling does not stick to one brand or style or color. “There are lots of choices,” she said. Joe’s Jeans, Diesel and Juicy Couture all hang together in her closet.

Her mom, who can’t imagine a pair of jeans costing that much, is not interested in hearing the pros of premium, Sperling said.

What’s the max she would spend?  Right now, $200 is her top price. But maybe, after she graduates and has a little more money, who knows?

Why all this fuss over one of the oldest American wardrobe icons?

When Levi Strauss sold his first pair of jeans to the California miners in 1850, they were strictly utilitarian.

His first version, made of rough canvas, was replaced with a twilled cotton cloth from France called “serge de Nimes,” which later became know as denim.

The red tag, Levi’s own designer label, was added in 1936.

From the 1950s on, things began to change for jeans. James Dean gave them a rebel image. They were bell-bottomed and flowered in the 1970s and tagged designer jeans in the 1980s when Brooke Shields suggested that nothing would come between her and her Calvin Kleins.

But even then prices never ventured as high as they are today. In part because they still seemed to be cut for males, not females. The waists bunched up in the back and the thighs were snug.

Seven for All Mankind, one of the first premium jeans makers, is generally given credit for the redesign, about five years ago.

The waist was lowered, the back side tailored to fit a woman’s back side.

The high-priced phenomenon has given the denim industry a boost, according to a wire service story. The total jeans market pulled in $14.6 billion in sales in the 12 months ending last August, according to NPD Group, a marketing information company that tracks the industry.

And premium denim doubled in sales between 1999 and 2004. Even then, premium denim makes up only 3 percent of the total market, and jeans priced at $100 are only 1 percent, the NPD Group reported.

The Post and Nickel carries more than 20 different brands and styles of premium denim for men and women, according to Tafe Bergo, who buys for the store.

Her usual premium denim customer ranges in age from 16 to 45 years old and buys for the fit, she said. “They look fabulous and they feel like you are wearing sweat pants,” Bergo said.

Her top four brands right now are Citizen for Humanity, Seven for All Mankind, True Religion and Joe’s Jeans.

Her top-selling line costs about $325, she said, and $425 is the top price at the Omaha and Lincoln stores.

Even if you are not normally comfortable in jeans, the fit of these styles will make you a believer, said Kelly Jo Hinrichs of Fusion. Many are cut to your natural waistline, higher in back and lower in front, and the denim is “different,” she said.

She wouldn’t name just one brand as best or most popular. “It’s not about the brand,” she said. “It’s the fit.”

If you’re looking to spend your Christmas money on designer jeans, here are some things to keep in mind:

* Dark denim jeans, which are usually considered more dressy, are the new “black pants” in many women’s wardrobes.

* Emerging themes for denim, according to the Monitor, a magazine put out by the cotton industry, includes “dress up denim,” American denim, which the magazine describes as “the current gold standard,” and “fancy” denim, embellished with embroidery, stones and sequins.

Reach Kathryn Cates Moore at 473-7214 or kmoore@journalstar.com.