The Juice on Juicy
A regular dose of trend history from the co-host of the podcast The Department
Kim Christenson of The Department Podcast
Website | Instagram
The Department Podcast started in August of 2020. As fashion buyers we have been trained to be super-sensitive to tracking and tracing emerging trends. We wanted to create an insightful dialog about trends outside of the context of “the industry” and make it digestible, funny, and enjoyable for everyone.
The Department Podcast is an exploration of trends and how they impact our society, culture, and consumer habits. We look at pop culture artifacts through the lens of our fashion industry experience, our own personal histories, and often extensive research that helps us form a deeper understanding of these trends and movements.
Over the course of the last five episodes we have been taking a deep dive into the trends that have defined the 2000s; everything from raunch culture, celebutantes, and the cult of the hipster. One fascinating trend vehicle we explore is the Juicy Couture tracksuit that took the world by storm in the early 2000s.
Now that the earliest Juicy pieces are crossing the twenty-year mark, they can officially fly under the banners of “vintage” and “nostalgia.” Can the brand garner another phase of cache and genuinely find a new audience? Read on . . .
Remember when the velour tracksuit was favored amongst mobsters and featured often as a costume on the Sopranos? When Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor launched their Juicy Couture tracksuit in 2001, they approached this outdated garment differently. Well-fitted casual wear was not particularly common before the aughts. Juicy featured a trendy lowrise with accents and seaming that was meant to accentuate and flatter almost everyone.They deliberately added the word “couture” at the end of the brand name; an oxymoron since velour jumpsuits are anything but couture.
As Pam said in an interview with Page Six, “Everything had to be more luxe, more expensive,” which just shows what an age of excess we were in then. Pam and Gela weren’t the true originators of this trend, however; Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons was actually the first brand to feminize the velour tracksuit and popularize emblazoning words on garments with rhinestones.
Before the brand was particularly well-known, Juicy sent J.Lo some tracksuits to “lounge around in” and she loved them so much that she wore a pink set in the music video “I’m Real” with Ja Rule. Interestingly, J.Lo rejected the option of wearing actual couture for the video, and chose the Juicy tracksuit to convey her real self.
Paris Hilton essentially became the poster child for Juicy Couture. To this day, she has a closet full of a few hundred different sets. After Paris wore Juicy on her “Simple Life” reality show in 2003, all the other celebutantes started to wear them (baby pink being the most iconic of all the colors). When the tracksuit debuted during the spring of 2001, the pants sold for roughly $80 and the top was about $75. The price point accomplished two things. It was expensive enough for people to show off a little, but just accessible enough for the average customer to afford. Juicy Couture was a sign of status; when you wore that tracksuit, you were lounging with the “in crowd” and A-listers.
In the Page Six interview, Pam Nash-Taylor talks about how the industry of celebrity gossip was critical to the brand’s success. She says, “Now, you look on your Instagram and you see what’s happening, but then it was all about the paparazzi culture.” She also describes the Wall of Fame and Wall of Shame bulletin boards in their office. Interns would go through all the celebrity rags every week and cut out aspirational photos of famous people in Juicy, as well as the infamous celebrity meltdowns and breakdowns. The brand blew up and expanded their product range: from those notorious Juicy rhinestone butts, they moved on to skirts, shirred dresses, cashmere sets, and even denim.
A combination of things caused this insane Juicy phenomena to decline. The 2008 recession and move away from the ostentatious fashion was one factor. Then there was just general trend fatigue and over saturation. Juicy saw sales slow substantially and Pam and Gela left the company in 2010. By 2014, Juicy sets were being sold at Kohls.
Is the trend dead? Well not so fast!
Vetements, who loves to resuscitate old brands, did a collab with Juicy in 2018 with the Vetements logo in rhinestones on a black velour set. Parade also just launched a line of Juicy branded underwear, so Gen Z is picking up the scent. And the celebrities who gave Juicy its juice are still in the game. For the launch of her Skims Velour collection in October 2020, Kim Kardashian teamed up with Paris Hilton to create a nostalgia-driven ad campaign in which the two of them pair velvety loungewear with bedazzled phones and Louis Vuitton bags.
Also, in December 2020, Juicy Couture (owned by Authentic Brands Group) relaunched their website with a mobile-friendly design and a big batch of new styles (including high waisted pants and cropped jackets). The brand's strategy is to spike direct-to-consumer sales with the help of marketing campaigns on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, while carefully choosing retail brand partnerships to carry select styles (such as a capsule collection at Fred Segal in L.A.
What is your take on the revival of Juicy? Are you feeling the appeal of comfy coordinated separates? Or is the whole concept of celebrity entrepreneurs shilling “luxury sweatpants” completely tone deaf in the context of the pandemic? And most importantly: is it a feminist flex to wear the word “juicy” emblazoned on your ass? Or will that word forever bear the tinge of aughties misogyny? Understanding trends, their past, present, and future is more valuable than you can imagine. I’ve gotten some great feedback from Department listeners who have used what they’ve learned from the podcast to support their professional work or inform their buying habits and decisions.
Want to contribute to the blog?
Keep Reading
