Anna Sui x Old Navy Collaboration: How It Came to Be, What to Expect, and What To Buy

As a child in the late ’90s and early 2000s, I spent many a weekend at Old Navy. Going there wasn’t just about buying new clothing that I could afford. It was about getting pieces for important events and holidays and moments I’d build memories in.

I’d buy new t-shirts and denim before the beginning of the school year. I’d pick out matching Christmas pajamas with my mom and my sister. The flip flop wall was a summer pilgrimage and the only thing that could ever get me excited about the simple vacation shoe. Old Navy is at the foundation of so much of my nostalgia. It is often what I am wearing when flashbacks play in my head of simpler times.

Last week, I found myself at Gap‘s offices in downtown New York. I’m an adult now and yet I still felt giddy when I stepped off the elevator and followed a trail of purple butterfly stickers with the words ‘Anna Sui x Old Navy’ written on the wings. They led me to a room filled with racks hanging with the brand’s first ever designer collaboration. When I mentioned how excited I was to be there for this moment, Zac Posen, Gap’s executive Vice President and Creative Director, quickly remarked, “A long time coming!” Sui herself joined shortly thereafter, wearing a long lilac skirt with lace trim from the collection.

What really brought me back wasn’t just the Old Navy of it all but a very specific dress Sui immediately walked over to and pulled off the rack. “We zero’ed in on the grunge collection,” she says before picking up a long black dress covered in a dark purple floral and butterfly print with ruffle details. Posen notes, “It’s a re-edition of this dress from a collection that really changed fashion. It kinda changed the world, when you think about it!” He laughs before adding, “But it influenced so much.”

Sui’s 1993 Grunge collection was part of a controversial fashion movement at the time, alongside collections by designers like Marc Jacobs and Christian Francis Roth, where a music subculture’s aesthetic became mainstream and challenged the notions of what luxury looked like.

And while what Old Navy and Sui are doing now isn’t necessarily quite as punk, they are working together to bring aspirational fashion at more attainable price points to old and new Anna Sui fashion fans alike.

“We invited Zac and Old Navy to come look at our archive,” Sui says. “And they went through and chose select pieces, prints and silhouettes. I just love how they were able to incorporate all of that into this whole collection and produce all these pieces at such incredible price points.” The entire collection features 24 pieces total, ranging in price from $19.99 to $119.99.

Sui is particularly excited about that grunge dress but also all of the iterations of her t-shirt, which has become a staple for her and a grail for many who love secondhand shopping. “This shirt is everyone’s favorite though,” she says while showing me a long sleeve black-button down shirt with sheer lace floral cut outs near the collarbones. “Oh and also, this coat!” she exclaims as she points to a maroon vegan leather penny lane coat on a hanger nearby.