Zip'Em! invention addresses fashion mishap

Tired of always having to zip up her low-rise jeans whenever the zipper unfastened itself, Suzanne Krauss has unveiled a new invention, Zip'em!, that will ensure jeans wearers will never again be caught with their pants down.

According to Krauss, who has lived in Westport for six years with her husband and two kids, Zip'em! is a small device made up of a tiny metal bar and a band that holds zippers in place by attaching the zipper to the pants button.

"It's a no-brainer," she said. "It's so simple-stupid that I can't believe it hasn't been invented before."

Originally, Krauss invented the contraption six months ago out of "self-need."

"I keep my hands on the pulse of what's hot in the fashion industry. Low-rise jeans are very fashionable now," said Krauss, a former editor for a fashion magazine. "Every time I moved in them, they'd come unzipped. And I'd say, `Is this a joke? I just spent $200 on these.'"

Krauss worked with three different companies to make the bar, band, and fabric for Zip'em!, and she said it was important for the labor to be done in the U.S.

"I could have had it made in China, but I'd rather pay more to have it in the USA," said Krauss, who has family in China.

While Krauss had originally invented Zip'em! just for herself, she started sending them to friends and family out of town as she noticed she was not the only one dealing with zipper problems. From there, Krauss said, it "just took off."

"It's a fashion secret weapon that no one knows you're wearing," she said. "It's between you and your zipper."

Krauss's first client, Susan Westthal of Westport, got to test Zip'em! before it was brought to market, and she described it as "unbelievable."

"It's one of those simple gadgets someone should have come up with years ago," Westthal said. "It's so brilliant and it's so easy to use. All of us women have jeans whose zippers don't stay up; it's a life-saver."

Helen Braunstein, of Philadelphia, said she has been using Zip'em! for six months and thinks it is a "great product and a great invention."

"Me and my friends use it. It's awesome because if you wear low-rise pants, when you sit down the zipper unzips, so we're always saying to each other `XYZ,' or `examine your zipper,' so we call this the examine your zipper-be-gone," said Braunstein. "It really works and it's so incredibly easy."

Krauss said it is her "greatest pleasure to find something that helps people."

"If it kicks off, it would just be the highlight of my career because I would be solving a fashion mishap," she said. "I don't care who you are, it is embarrassing to be caught with your zipper down."

Zip'em! costs $4.99 per package, with four devices included in each package. The product can be purchased online at www.zip-em.com