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If nostalgia is the name of the game, Old Navy is playing to win. As Gen X and millennials reminisce about the days of American flag T-shirts and low-rise cargo shorts, the brand is diving headfirst into beauty with 21 different products—hair and body mists, lotions, and body washes— in seven different scents retailing for $14.99 apiece.
If the launch seems out of left field, it’s actually par for the course. CivicScience, a consumer analytics company, reports that nostalgia influences 68% of US adult purchases “at least a little.” Gap Inc., which is the parent company of quintessential mall-era brands, including Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta, has recently made concerted efforts to amp up its cultural relevance. That includes hiring Zac Posen, Nordstrom Inc. beauty alumna Debra Redmond as its head of the category, multihyphenate designer Reed Krakoff, and others to oversee a range of categories across the brands. Those moves come after Richard Dickson, the former Mattel exec largely credited with capitalizing on the buzz behind Greta Gerwig's Barbie, joined as president and CEO. (He’s basically who you can thank for that summer of Barbiecore.)
Old Navy thinks the seven scents are for everyone, but they will resonate specifically with Gen Z. “I always find it interesting that a generation like Gen Z never lived [that era], but they’re craving it,” Redmond says. “It goes back to this optimism, this joy, this moment in time where, as a Gen Xer, it was all about that self-expression and really embracing who you were. For the generation now, while they didn’t live it, they’re craving it because it was a simpler time.”
The company’s first attempt at cross-generational appeal came from the Gap fragrance launch earlier this summer, which saw the brand revive fragrances under the names of its classic ’90s scents, with the addition of a new one, Harmony. (They were met with mixed-to-positive reviews.) Before that, Gap had kicked off apparel collabs with Hailey Bieber and Victoria Beckham.
No stranger to big-ticket collaborators, the company looked to a high-profile perfumer to work on the Old Navy launch. If you’ve ever smelled something from Byredo or know Sol de Janeiro’s Cheirosa 62, you know his work. Jérôme Epinette developed these new scents.
“When you start working on a collection, it’s hard in the beginning. You ask yourself, Do I go completely crazy? Do I go super niche? Do I do [something] more commercial?" Epinette says. “After speaking with Deb and the Old Navy team, it was obvious that we needed some common ingredients— nothing crazy or niche—but with an edge. I think that’s why they asked me to work on it.” That’s Epinette’s sweet spot. Take Bal d’Afrique, the Byredo scent that brought a warm, earthy twist to floral notes and quickly became a cult classic.
Most of the new Old Navy fragrances just touch on a handful of notes, many of them particularly popular among Gen Z. Case in point, Gourmand Thrill focuses on toasted pistachio, creamy coconut, and salty amber; Fresh Splash touches on juicy pear, salty beachwood, and white woods, and was the favorite of Allure beauty director Sarah Kinonen. “Unfortunately, I don’t enjoy most of the scents in the collection; they’re much too sweet for me. But Fresh Splash was a delightful surprise,” she says. “It’s very fruit-forward with juicy pear, but the dry-down warms things up with the salty beachwood and white woods. It’s nice. If I’m being honest, though, I don’t think I’d get much use out of the eight-ounce bottle. But my seven-year-old niece sure would!” Bianca Richards, Allure’s social media manager, says Sorbet D’Lish, “brings me back to those early mornings before school when my mom would wash and style my hair. These products definitely feel nostalgic to me, and though I have no qualms with the body wash and mist, I don’t think I would use them in my day-to-day routine.”
“Floral Sweet would have been my jam in middle school. The body spray smells as juicy as it does saccharine,” says Allure editor Jesa Marie Calaor of the scent that blends crushed raspberry with sensuous amber and white patchouli. “I wouldn’t reach for it now. I prefer musky florals these days, but it does satisfy my inner teen.” Suede Embrace, on the other hand, is a softer, more nuanced option, featuring jasmine blossom, sheer amber, and wild honey, which content director Sophia Panych did find herself spritzing throughout the workday.
One Allure staffer likened some of the scents to the fish-shaped bottles of L’Oréal’s defunct No More Tears 2-in-1 kids’ shampoos. Nostalgic, sure, but definitely more simplified than a bottle of Byredo’s Mojave Ghost. From Old Navy’s perspective, that’s part of the fun. “Jérôme really looked at how the customer could take any of the scents and layer them on top of each other. It was providing the bases or the prime of citrus, and/or amber, and/or vanilla in a new way," says Redmond, adding that Epinette understood layering can feel intimidating to consumers. "If you think about the playfulness of layering—the mixing, the matching—he provided that in a way that feels very accessible and welcoming."
That ethos is extending into other categories, too—just not right now. “Our body washes are infused with vitamins E and K because of the emollience there. We didn’t want anything drying,” Redmond says. A few Allure editors gave them a go and found they weren't drying, but also not the most hydrating option they’ve tried.
When the body mists were piloted in 150 Old Navy stores for testing purposes, Redmond made the decision to add two new scents before rolling out to the 1,000-plus fleet. “I think it’s keeping the family vibe of Old Navy,” Epinette adds, noting that all genders, ages, and backgrounds shop the brand, often in the same household. “Everybody shops at Old Navy—a mom, a daughter, a husband, et cetera.” After all, as Redmond puts it, “You have the young adult that’s coming in and shopping, expressing their fashion and personality. Then you also have the family, so we came from a place of creating something that feels very relevant and modern and, at the same time, if you were to use this on anyone in the family, you could use it with confidence.”
