The Hailey Jean collection goes on sale from midday today for $89. The hardware is stamped with the year 1996, there is a Hailey Bieber signature inside the pocket, and Mario Sorrenti shot the campaign. The campaign film features “Linger” by The Cranberries. The 1990s, which the capsule is built around, belong to Gap itself.
That is the whole mechanism behind the brand’s return to the cultural conversation. Gap combines an era it defined itself with creators who bring their own audiences with them.
The capsule consists of two cuts, the Extra Baggy Jean and the Low Rise Loose Jean, each in three washes. According to the brand, Bieber helped shape it, from the proportions to the cut. “Hailey understands denim instinctively, from proportion and fit to movement,” said Jane Pattinson, SVP and Global Head of Design at Gap.
Gap’s own 1990s archive
The nostalgia of the collection lands precisely in the period when Gap was last culturally dominant. The khaki dance commercials of the late 1990s, including “Khaki Swing” from 1998, are its own archive of music and movement. Today’s capsule reaches straight back into it.
Creators now supply the relevance
The archive is being restarted through creators who are native to culture. The autumn Better in Denim campaign put a six-member group, Katseye, into choreography to “Milkshake” by Kelis.
CMO Fabiola Torres described the aim as meeting audiences “where culture is happening now through music, movement and storytelling”. Brand president Mark Breitbard frames the collaborations as positioning built on “fashion as entertainment”.
The numbers point the same way. On the earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, held on 28 May 2026, Gap Inc. reported net sales growth of 1% to $3.5 billion and comparable Gap brand sales growth of 10%.
According to the same call, the Sweats Like This campaign with Young Miko generated around 1.5 billion media and social impressions, and the Coachella activation sold roughly 10,000 sweatshirts. “Gap is back on the forefront of the cultural conversation. It is clearly on a roll as an iconic American brand,” said CEO Richard Dickson.
Bieber built her own beauty brand
Bieber’s choice makes sense beyond the jeans themselves. In 2022 she co-founded the cosmetics brand rhode. In May 2025, e.l.f. Beauty bought it in a deal worth up to $1 billion, of which $800 million was paid at closing and a further $200 million as a three-year earn-out.
For the year to 31 March 2025, rhode reported net sales of $212 million across ten products and direct sales, which corresponded to a multiple of 3.8 times net sales. Gap is thus buying access to an audience and a brand that Bieber built herself.
Competitors are doing the same
Levi’s has put together a similar combination of its own archive and a music star. In September 2024 it launched the REIIMAGINE campaign with Beyoncé after the release of the track “LEVII’S JEANS” from the album Cowboy Carter, and its first film draws on the iconic 1985 “Launderette” ad. “The Levi’s® brand has and always will be the unofficial uniform for those moving forward in the pursuit of better,” said Kenny Mitchell, Levi’s global CMO.
American Eagle has bet on celebrities. According to The Hollywood Reporter, its recent campaigns generated around 40 billion impressions, and after the results the stock rose 25% in after-hours trading. The campaign with Sydney Sweeney was described by CMO Craig Brommers as “a brand and business reset, and it was.”
Gap relies on a series of creators. Alongside Katseye and Bieber, Young Miko and Troye Sivan have featured in its campaigns, each with their own audience.
A European example
The same principle works in Europe. Italy’s Miu Miu, part of Prada Group, increased global retail sales by 93% in 2024. Prada Group rests on its own aesthetic, to which the brand keeps returning.
The Hailey Jean is sold online and in selected stores in the US, Canada, Britain, France and Japan, so European markets are covered too. Its own cultural archive and a creator’s audience are the two assets on which the comeback of both Gap and Levi’s rests.
Comments