For American Eagle, denim is big business. From high schoolers to Priyanka Chopra Jonas, everyone loves the brand's jeans. And starting this month, even more people will be able to wear them.
American Eagle is joining Anthropologie and Loft in expanding its sizing, both in stores and online, starting with its fall 2019 women's denim assortment. The brand previously offered its jeans in sizes 00 to 20 online; now they'll go up to a 24, and all sizes will be available both in stores and on its website. Men's denim will now be available in sizes 26 to 48 as well.
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Global brand president Chad Kessler tells Glamour that, as one of the top purveyors of denim for women in the country, American Eagle wanted to make sure it was making its star product available to the majority of shoppers, both online and in its stores.
"We were up to 16 in stores and up to 20 online, but we just felt like that wasn't inclusive enough," he says. It took a year to bring this idea to the brick-and-mortar business, but the company ultimately decided it was necessary: "The more time we spent in stores, the more groups we saw shopping, the more we realized that women are being left out, especially when it comes to shopping specialty retailers in malls. Inclusivity is one of our brand platforms, and we wanted to include all of our customers."
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There was one specific event that really made this decision clear to the team, according to Kessler. "We had a model in our window wearing a size that we don't carry in stores," he says. "She's wearing jeans that we carry online. We said, 'This is silly. She's going to be on the window, we want [the jeans] everywhere.'"
American Eagle's latest denim collection has more than 30 different pieces, in varying fits, rises, and degrees of stretch. Its marquee style is its Curvy Jean, which was first introduced in February and will be available in 12 new washes for fall 2019. (At the top of the website page for the Curvy Jean, you can see how it fits on models who are sizes 00, 6, 12, and 22.) Because this is American Eagle, they're all very affordable, with most coming in at $49.95.
"We've seen great response whenever we've had diverse models—sizes, shapes, colors—in the campaign," says Kessler. "I think people appreciate seeing people who are either like them or like their friends, who look like people who they see in their lives or that they can relate to. We want to represent that across the product, and especially in our jeans brand and in our stores."
Starting on July 23, American Eagle's commitment to inclusive visuals goes a step further with new mannequins—in sizes 4, 8, and 16—in its stores. "We felt reflecting that assortment in the windows and in the mannequins was just as important as in the inventory," Kessler says. "We have regular and curvy mannequins. In men's, we have regular- and athletic-fit mannequins too."
And Kessler teases that there's more to come: Next spring the 00 to 24 range will be across all women's bottoms—jeans, shorts, pants—in stores, and across other apparel categories online. Ultimately, the goal will be to have as many products in as many sizes in its stores as possible, according to Kessler. For now, though, "we're starting with jeans because that's the leading category," he says. "We'll see where the customer takes us."
This article has been updated.
