Aerie launched its Emily + Meritt collaboration on Thursday. The 64-piece capsule is Aerie’s largest collaboration to date, based on the number of styles. And it marks a move into what the brand internally calls “remixed vintage,” a styling-led approach that translates nostalgic aesthetics into modern, wearable and repeat-wear products.
Aerie is using the partnership to formalize a behavior it has noticed among its Gen Z shoppers; younger consumers are learning about vintage style through stylists’ work — seen on celebrities and in social posts — and then shopping for those looks from brands that can deliver comfort, consistency and price accessibility.
The Emily + Meritt collection launches on Aerie.com and in select Aerie and Offline stores, with a prominent physical rollout at Aerie’s SoHo location. The included intimates start at around $18, while bralettes sell for $30–$40, and sleep and lounge pieces — like satin slip dresses, striped pants and knit cardigans — are $48-$88.
The rollout is supported by in-store events, including a meet-and-greet event at the SoHo store with the collection’s collaborators, stylists Emily Current and Meritt Elliott. Content across Aerie’s social and digital channels, meanwhile, will focus on bringing the duo’s styling process to life and reinforcing themes of friendship, nostalgia and the collection’s everyday wearability.
Longtime creative partners Current and Elliott built their reputations as stylists before co-founding premium denim label Current/Elliott in 2008. The brand helped mainstream vintage-wash denim and was later valued at roughly $200 million when it sold a majority stake to investment management firm Spruce House Partnership. In December 2025, Current/Elliott was acquired by brand developer Republic Brands Group — it is no longer run by its founders. Current and Elliott have been focused on building their off-duty fashion label, The Great, since 2015.
“Our work has always started with styling, with how something feels when you put it on, how it moves and how it becomes part of someone’s everyday life,” said Current, noting that the vintage references in the Aerie collection — namely, washed fabrics, retro trims and relaxed silhouettes — were “softened” and “reworked for real life.” They focused on silhouettes that “feel nostalgic yet effortless,” and fits that “prioritize comfort without losing shape or intention,” so that “every piece feels lived-in, wearable and easy to style, whether you’re layering or wearing it on its own,” Elliott said.
Aerie CMO Stacey McCormick said the brand was aiming for a styling-first collection when it approached Current and Elliott. “They’re stylists,” she said. “They’re very much about outfitting and putting things together that are unexpected.” It’s an approach designed to help customers envision full looks, rather than stick to single-item buys. McCormick described the collaboration as a meeting of Aerie’s intimates expertise and the duo’s vintage-driven point of view.
“We both said we need pieces that you reach for all the time, to the point it almost becomes vintage in your own collection, because you wear it so much,” she said. The idea is also to offer nostalgia, free of the usual worry surrounding a vintage item — that it will fall apart if repeatedly worn and washed.
Google Trends data shows global search interest in “vintage inspired” items has more than doubled over the past three years, reflecting the aesthetic’s shift into the mainstream. In addition, McCormick emphasized the collaboration’s multigenerational relevance, noting that Aerie is focused on reaching and retaining Gen Alpha and Gen Z.
In 2025, brands across categories leaned into remixed vintage. They included Hollister, with its 25th-anniversary Y2K reissues in July; Reformation, with its 20-piece vintage-inspired capsule with Nara Smith in February; and Hudson Jeans, with its Spring 2025 collaboration with Brooks Nader, which nodded to ’90s supermodel style.
“We admire how Aerie prioritizes how women feel in their clothes,” said Elliott. “We wanted every piece to feel approachable, comfortable and empowering. This was about creating something honest, personal and rooted in how women actually live and dress.”
Current added, “We shopped Aerie on our own, and now we are able to shop it with our daughters, so the process [of creating this collection] felt very natural.”
The timing aligns with Aerie’s business momentum. On American Eagle Outfitters’s December 2 earnings call, CEO Jay Schottenstein said the company delivered record third-quarter revenue of $1.4 billion, up 6% year over year, with operating income of $113 million, above guidance. He called Aerie’s performance “a real standout,” citing an 11% comp and “strong demand, broad-based across all categories,” adding that growth had continued into the fourth quarter, with “exceptional demand.” CFO Mike Mathias later said fourth-quarter guidance implied Aerie comps would be in the high teens.
AEO president and executive creative director Jen Foyle tied that momentum to category breadth. Aerie’s third-quarter results were fueled by “strength across all categories, including intimates, apparel, sleep and Offline,” she said, calling the resurgence in intimates “very encouraging” and describing sleep as “a powerful growth category.” The Emily + Meritt capsule mirrors that mix, spanning intimates, sleep, loungewear and accessories.
