Juicy Couture… Again?

Juicy Couture was all the rage in the early 2000s into the 2010s. Their signature velour tracksuits were worn by almost every celebrity at the time and Juicy expanded into one of the most popular fashion brands. Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian were notable buyers. According to a reporter for Insider, Ashley Lutz, even though seemingly everyone wanted “juicy” bedazzled on their sweatpants, the brand did not evolve enough to stay afloat.

The velour tracksuits created by Juicy were initially so popular since they were the first luxury loungewear. Juicy set the stage for brands like Lululemon and Athleta, both still popular today, blazing a new trail for colors and wearability.

Juicy Couture was sold to Authentic Brands for $195 million in 2013. Despite its raging popularity, Juicy Couture’s reputation started to decline. It was becoming an image for non-working women or women who were “too rich to work.” It became the symbol for rich housewives and turned away customers who could not identify with or match that expectation. Alex Ronan, a reporter at The Cut, shared, “Sporting a tracksuit meant you were too good to do actual work.”

Ronan provided examples of the aloof and out of touch lifestyles captured through TV shows like The Simple Life (with Paris Hilton and Nicole Sanasa), Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and the Real Housewives (of name a major city) franchise. All shows aired during the Great Recession which occurred in 2008. The suits cost almost $200, so it was unreasonable for most American women to buy them. Although the United States loved the brand Juicy, its price point and its practicality became unobtainable for most American women.

Juicy essentially disappeared from society until Amy Gibson, a Beyoncé’s Ivy Park designer, came on board as the Head of Design.

Gibson told Tatler Newsletters, “I had noticed that so many relevant brands were riffing off Juicy Couture’s heritage style, quite literally everyone was doing Juicy but Juicy themselves.”

Gibson chose to make the new Juicy more sophisticated, empowered, and stylish for women instead of the exclusively casual, “young look.” Widening customer identification with the product and providing an attainable and realistic image for women will allow Juicy to follow society’s change.

“Our culture has moved towards newer values - health, ambition, and strength, and the new direction should allow customers to embody that,” Gibson said.

We need a sense of nostalgia in our lives as we are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Acknowledging our interconnectedness through fashion and comfort is a great place to start to return to normal. Finding comfort through all of our recent societal changes can feel essential: especially when rediscovering a more sophisticated velour tracksuit.