Women the world over know the value of a push-up bra and the instant boost it delivers to one’s décolletage (and ego).

Did you know that the butt can also benefit from a pair of “push-up” jeans? Marco Marchi, creative director and one of the founders of Italian brand Liu Jo, has spent a lot of time critically assessing women’s derrieres in order to create a pair of jeans as revolutionary as the push-up bra.

Liu Jo’s bottom-shaping jeans line, aptly called Bottom Up, is the brand’s most iconic product, a true feat of clothing engineering that sold 500,000 pairs when it was first launched (former first lady of France Carla Bruni Sarkozy is a fan).

For the Bottom Up jeans, Marchi and his team went so far as to consult a cosmetic surgeon. “As Italians we like our women beautiful, so we asked an aesthetic surgery expert what common surgeries women would ask for to improve parts of their bodies,” said Marchi in Italian, with Liu Jo’s strategic adviser Luca Donnini translating for him.

According to the surgeon interviewed, a lot of women were dissatisfied with the state of their behinds, which led Marchi to construct a pair of jeans that would address women’s backside concerns. “There is a stretch technique that supports the legs, which streamlines the legs while pushing up the butt,” said Marchi. Tiny silicone strips are strategically sewn into the denim, which adheres to the body and provides bottom lift-off.

The beauty of the Bottom Up, though, is not just its lifting capabilities but its comfort as well.

“The goal is to make it feel like second skin, comfortable like a glove without making you feel constrained,” added Marchi. This commitment to practical femininity is ingrained into the brand’s DNA, according to Marchi.

Cheeky TV ads

The Bottom Up is known all over Italy not just for their push-up effect, but for the cheeky TV ads that promote the product. In the TV spots, men and women of different ages, plus a dog,

are shown wearing neck braces. It is only until the camera pans to the right that you see why all of them have suffered whiplash: a woman clad in snug Bottom Up jeans can be seen sashaying down the street, turning admiring heads sharply to the point of injury.

Apart from denims, Liu Jo is planning to expand its active wear and environmentally conscious apparel. “With pollution and natural disasters happening, we wanted to go back to the value of nature in fashion,” said Marchi.

This has led the brand to use more natural materials like cotton and natural fiber, as well as scaling down the use of chemical dyes in the coloring process of the fabrics, choosing instead to use nontoxic, sustainable materials.

Marchi said that Liu Jo is a good fit for Filipino women because of its core values of femininity and contemporary fashion. “The Philippine consumers’ approach to fashion is also similar to how European women dress,” he said.

To date, Liu Jo has boutiques in Manila and Cebu. Following the format of the flagship boutique in Milan, the brand intends to create a flagship store in Manila, followed by the addition of three more boutiques in prime malls.

Liu Jo is at Glorietta 2, SM Mall of Asia and Ayala Center Cebu.