Homecoming
Consumer nostalgia and legacy brand revivals
I love the mall. I spent my most formative years smelling candles at Bath & Body Works, looking for treasures in department stores, and flipping through books at Barnes & Noble. Ever since I moved out of Orange Country, I’ve been dreaming about going back to South Coast Plaza, getting a brunch at Denny’s, and browsing through a drugstore makeup section of a huge suburban Target (a city Target is a disgrace). And it looks like my peers are caught up in the same feverish nostalgia — we are drinking Diet Coke after years of abstaining from soda, patronizing old-timey establishments, and shopping heritage brands. The only problem is that most of the brands we used to love growing up either went bankrupt resisting change or lost all the sauce and brand magic that made them special, trying to follow us into the new age while we indulged in craft cocktails and learned about Japanese denim.
There was a point in time when every mass retail brand traded in their kooky identities for H&M cleanliness. Models stopped smiling, photoshoot locations became tropical, and the eerie feeling of dread filled the brick-and-mortar stores — the music is a little too loud, the space is a little too empty, and everyone inside is a little surprised to see you walk in through the front door. Gap, Mango, Zara, H&M, Madewell, Abercrombie — they all look the same, speak the same, work with the same celebrities and influencers, and make the same summer dresses and button up shirts.
I am waiting with bated breath for the Gap resurgence, but at this point, I feel like Zac Posen and Richard Dickson keep nudging me with PR stunts rather than anything I can and want to participate in. They skipped the nostalgia round, and went straight for modern silhouettes and female shoppers with Zac’s specialty — beautiful dresses for gorgeous women, quite a departure from streetwear-focused Yeezy x Gap. And yet, the stylists (phenomenal job here), celebrities, and collaboration partners are the ones doing the heavy lifting. It takes time to bring a legendary retail brand back to life, but I am getting impatient, with every new studio shot of a white tank and jeans chipping away at my hope for a proper revival.
The New Balance and Adidas playbooks are so tempting to follow. Let smaller, younger designers and hot public figures have a fresh take on classics and boom — things get buzzy, propelling your name right back into the zeitgeist. But as much as shoe collabs have been great for business, have they really revived the respective legacy brands? What is Adidas without Gazelles and Sambas? What happens when one of these shoe collabs, like the New Balance loafers, is a little too weird (or stale?) for comfort even for fashion nerds? The vibes at the New Balance store on 5th Ave are still odd by the way — lots of people, nothing to buy. All the stuff you want is online!
The unfortunate truth is that after years of New York cafes spoiling me with freshly roasted coffee and delicate pastries, I’d probably squirm a little from the cheap bottomless coffee at Denny’s. Lots of young people hold these dear sweet memories of the simpler times, but when it comes to reviving them, we are reluctant about participating. We say we miss shopping in-store, but the bittersweet truth is that it’s hard to get people in stores without exclusives, events, community programs, and other sweet little add-ons. It’s like coming back home from the city — feels amazing until it hits you with a sudden realization that you did, indeed, outgrow this place.
And still, maybe the best parts about a weekend brunch at Denny’s are the excellent service and affordable cost. Those servers and hosts get you in and out of there in minutes with a cheerful attitude and a smile. No reservations needed, everyone’s cups are refilled the second they are empty, and your sunny-side-up eggs are coming right up. They run that place like the navy, and in the world where it’s impossible to get a reservation, and a dinner check in New York is at least $50 per person, a brunch at Denny’s and a burger at The Odeon sound like heaven.
What makes something timeless? A simple white dress, a movie, a diamond, or a holiday song? Does it have to be a stepping stone in the history of its genre, like Jaws? Does it have to be consistent, like the service at Balthazar? So many brand people are sweating over unloyal consumers and trends shaking up their businesses, but not many of them are invested into making good products and experiences that stand the chance at becoming a classic. Maybe instead of plotting a version of the next 550 sneaker, we should put more time and energy into dreaming up our version of a Mcdonald’s fry.
IN THE MARGINS
First of all, thank you to everyone who supported the launch of Busy Corner’s creative lab last week! If you are looking for actionable resources you can use to grow as a brand or a creative — guides, reference banks, and contact lists, use code ILY until the end of the month to check it out. This week’s update will be a guide for creatives and newsletter writers on how to pitch projects and sponsorships to brands, and a creative library/reference bank. Let me know if you have any research requests!
I put my business analyst hat on and wrote a deep dive on the biggest fashion rebrands of the decade for The Stanza. It breaks down the revival strategy of COS, Helmut Lang, Banana Republic, Esprit, and Courreges, and spells out the perfect recipe for a successful rebrand. Spoiler alert: Courreges and COS blew me away.
And a couple of pieces about consumer nostalgia, brand revivals, and legacy brands that didn’t fit the main story:
Anthony Bourdain’s description of Waffle House: “It is indeed, marvelous, an irony-free zone where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts; where everybody, regardless of race, creed, color, or degree of inebriation, is welcomed — its warm yellow glow a beacon of hope and salvation, inviting the hungry, the lost, the seriously hammered all across the South to come inside. A place of safety and nourishment. It never closes, it is always faithful, always there for you.”
This quote from Reggie Nadelson’s book that chronicles the life of Keith McNally’s Balthazar: “It was almost startling, that you could go someplace incredibly trendy and popular and be treated in a human sort of way and eat really good food, even while you were watching a scene so cool, so filled with truly famous people — John Belushi, Andy Warhol, Scorsese, Basquiat — it was like being a tourist at the end of the known world.”
Lauren Sherman’s take on the Gap revival on Fashion people.
Always a great read! ❤️ love that we’re all nostalgic
Completely different setting/era but I was a loyal Jack Wills girlie as a teen (i.e. when One Direction members started appearing in hoodies that proudly proclaim JW)—their preppy dresses and tops were perfect and made with actually decent material (not like Abercrombie or Hollister!) and I've worn some of them for 10+ years. They still exist in some form in the UK but does cheap quality asos/shein-style things now. Huuuuuge shame.
Anyway hi from across the pond!!