Old Navy Is Giving Itself a Thoughtful, Size-Inclusive Makeover

Old Navy announced some significant changes coming in-store and online with their launch of a new initiative called BODEQUALITY. Beginning August 20, Old Navy will offer all of its women’s styles in every size, with no price difference. This may sound like an obvious move, but Old Navy is actually the first value retailer to do so. The brand will start offering sizes 0-30 and XS-4X in all women’s styles for the same price. With this launch, Old Navy hopes to reimagine the shopping environment in all stores and online to be much more inclusive, giving shoppers the fashion choices and experience we all deserve.

In-Store Experience

If you're a plus-size shopper (or know someone who is), you’re probably already familiar with the fact that most plus sizes are placed in a separate section—usually in the back corner somewhere—away from the straight-size merchandise. However, with BODEQUALITY, Old Navy is doing away with different sections altogether.

Instead, styles in sizes 0-28 will be merchandised together in-store. Another change you will see with the new initiative is more size-inclusive visuals in store, as well as mannequins in sizes four, twelve, and eighteen. As for the Old Navy associates, they’ll also play an important role, undergoing extensive customer-focused training to ensure everyone feels welcome while shopping at an Old Navy physical location.

“We saw an opportunity to meaningfully change the women’s shopping experience by making it more inclusive regardless of size,” said Nancy Green, President and CEO of Old Navy. “BODEQUALITY is not a one-time campaign, but a full transformation of our business in service to our customers based on years of working closely with them to research their needs. I’m proud of the collaboration across our Old Navy teams to evolve the retail experience for women.”

Online Experience

Online, the brand is merging its Women’s and Women’s Plus collections from the navigation menu to provide one size integrated shopping destination for sizes 00-30.

Another exciting change is that Old Navy now has models of different sizes showcasing their clothes. Their Women’s styles will be shown in sizes four, twelve, and eighteen, and shoppers can use a new toggle feature to select their preferred default model display size.

New and Improved Fit and Design

Old Navy reinvented its fit process and size standards using years of extensive research, customer consultation, and design reviews to create the brand’s most comfortable and consistent size run and fit yet. 

Here are a few ways Old Navy accomplished this:

• The brand administered body scans of 389 women to create digital avatars based on real women’s bodies as well as running fit clinics with multiple models in sizes 20-28 to build new fit blocks based on their unique proportions (instead of utilizing the standard industry practice of scaling up from smaller sizes). 
• The retailer also partnered with full-time fit models in sizes eight and twenty to review every style available on both women side-by-side.
•  Old Navy considered customer feedback, interviewing hundreds of women about body image and fashion concerns while developing their new BODEQUALITY campaign.

To kick off the launch, beginning August 20th, Old Navy is launching a major project to introduce BODEQUALITY to women everywhere. It will include the premiere of a new campaign starring Aidy Bryant (Shrill and SNL fans, rejoice) and an open letter from the brand announcing the integrated shopping experience.

According to the team, "developing BODEQUALITY allowed us to rethink the way we serve women in the retail industry," said Alison Partridge Stickney, Head of Women’s and Maternity Merchandising at Old Navy. “We set out to understand what women of all sizes wanted from fashion and the shopping experience and were inspired to revolutionize every area of our business, from how we fit and design our products, to how we communicate to customers in stores and online to ensure that all women feel welcome and represented." In short, the launch is "a transformative moment for our brand and the fashion industry.”