Aerie, the intimate apparel and lifestyle retailer, has partnered with Emily Current and Meritt Elliott for a collection that hits stores Thursday.
Current and Elliott are the cofounders of Current/Elliott, a sportswear brand they exited in 2012. They went on to cofound the Los Angeles-based The Great ready-to-wear brand in 2015. The duo also have a design and styling business Emily and Meritt, where they do various projects, including their latest project for Aerie.
Aerie x Emily + Meritt is a 64-piece capsule that spans intimates, sleep, loungewear and accessories.
“First of all, we love their work. I mean, everything they do is fantastic, from The Great to Current/Elliott to the work they do with Emily and Meritt. So it was really just an interesting connection with appreciating each other’s work,” said Stacey McCormick, chief marketing officer of Aerie and Offl/ne, divisions of American Eagle Outfitters.
Current and Elliott met as students at University of California in Los Angeles, and bonded over a shared love of vintage, an early creative connection that evolved from styling into designing and continues to define their approach today.
Some looks from Aerie x Emily + Meritt.
According to Elliott, “The Emily and Meritt brand was born the day we met, and it has really cemented to be a brand that celebrates friendship and fashion. It’s also really emotionally driven.” She said when the opportunity arose, it brought them back to the days when they were young stylists who frequently shopped at the mall. “Aerie played a really important role for us. We’ve always loved the brand, we’ve loved the product, and we loved to layer it. When we were stylists, we’d use their product a lot.
“Emily and I are brand builders and we always say our greatest achievement is our friendship,” said Elliott. Current added that they have children now and they’re shopping with them. “Aerie became this resource not only for us, but our daughters,” she said.
Current said this collection is multigenerational and features clothing you can wear inside or outside.
Among their assorted design projects, Current and Elliott had a 10-year partnership with William Sonoma Group, and had ongoing collections for Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, teen and adult. They have also designed paper goods and have designed apparel. “This is our first foray into intimates and sleep, and it’s an opportunity to speak to a broader audience, to bigger brands, more mass brands and mall brands and have a different price point,” said Current.
Elliott said, “We’ve always drawn to vintage inspiration, so there’s this thread of vintage lingerie that runs through, and it’s kind of pieces that can peek out and they’re part of your styling point of view, soft layers, pajama dressing inside and outside, and pajama pants you can wear in when you’re curled up with your friends talking, and then throw on sneakers and go out into the world.”
All the intimate pieces, prints and patterns are pulled from their vintage archive, said Current.
The collection features matching panties and bra sets, striped pajama sets, and big chunky wrap sweaters, said Elliott. There are also silky pieces, lacy pieces and jackets. She said you can lounge in them or wear them out. “So a pajama top can be a pajama top or can be tucked into jeans. The silky cami can be worn at home to bed or worn under a sweatshirt with jeans out. It’s this idea that these pieces are flexible and fun and are able to be incorporated into your own style,” said Current.
Elliott said one of her favorite pieces is the best friend T-shirt. Current said her favorite pieces are the satin bralette sets. Prices range from $18 for accessories up to $148 for sweaters. The collaboration is for one season.
McCormick said they relied on Aerie’s expertise in intimates and used Aerie’s factories for the production.
McCormick noted that Current and Elliott collaborated on the entire design process, starting with the sketches. “They were extremely involved in storytelling and shooting. We came out to L.A. and spent two days with them, really digging into some of their fun design archives. They were very involved with all the execution points,” she said, down to the video, the labeling and the color of the typeface.
What Aerie gets out of this is cultivating a new audience they haven’t reached before. Current and Elliott have a following that generates that elevated, curated style, she said. “We’re excited to bring our brand to more people, and they get an opportunity to go into more of a specialty space focused on a Gen Z consumer,” said McCormick. She said Aerie’s base is heavily Gen Z and Millennial.
And what did Aerie learn from working with them?
“They’re very similar to the way we work. To see someone so obsessed with detail and intentional, and the way the product feels. The level of detail into everything. We spent a lot of time and put our team on the project to really bring it to life with so much love. It’s definitely made with love,” said McCormick.
“Working in fashion and owning your own business and doing what we do is hard, and these kind of projects are fun. The process is fun, and the product is fun. And so what a joy that we get to speak to so many people and work with new people and meet new people,” said Current.
The collection hits select stores and the e-commerce site Thursday. It will be featured on the Times Square LED billboard in New York. Current and Elliott will attend a party at Aerie’s SoHo store on Saturday. There will be in-store dedicated marketing and email and social teasing.
