Old Navy shifts to inclusive sizing in all stores and online

Dive Brief:

Old Navy on Wednesday announced "Bodequality," an effort that starting Aug. 20 will offer all women's styles in sizes 0 to 30 and XS to 4X.
The inclusive sizing will be priced equally. In stores, sizes 0 to 28 will be merchandised together, and mannequins will be featured in sizes four, 12 and 18, according to a company press release.
More sizes (00 to 30) will be available online, where the women's and plus sections will be merged. The site will feature models wearing sizes four, 12 and 18. A toggle feature will allow e-commerce shoppers to display their preferred size.

Dive Insight:

Old Navy's Bodequality effort is its latest evolution in size inclusivity, although so far it applies only to women's styles. A few years ago, the Gap Inc. value brand placed specialized plus and petite styles for men and women in special sections at a limited number of stores. Before that, extended sizes were available only online; in 2014, the brand had to be pushed to accept plus size returns at stores.

At that time, Old Navy said it would meet with customers to see how to improve their approach. The brand appears to have listened.

"We saw an opportunity to meaningfully change the women's shopping experience by making it more inclusive regardless of size," Old Navy CEO Nancy Green said in a statement. "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."

Old Navy has enlisted actor and comedian Aidy Bryant, a "Saturday Night Live" cast member also known for her streaming series, "Shrill," for a multichannel ad campaign that was developed with The Martin Agency. Bryant will star alongside a diverse group of women in a TV spot and in content on Instagram and TikTok. The campaign also includes nearly 500 out-of-home placements in New York and Los Angeles, plus an open letter to "women everywhere" that will be featured on the brand's digital channels.

The changes follow similar measures taken at Athleta, Gap Inc.'s surging activewear brand, early this year. While for years retailers and brands separated larger sizes, if they offered them at all, consumers now expect clothing to be available for people of any size and merchandised within assortments.

The creation of clothing that fits well in a variety of sizes requires extra attention in design and production. Old Navy on Wednesday said it took several steps to develop its Bodequality approach, including running fit clinics with a diverse group of models to scale fit blocks, employing body scans of 389 women to create digital avatars and interviewing "hundreds of women about body image and related fashion concerns."