Why Crocs, Vera Bradley and other brands are diving into their archives for fashion inspiration
For some fashion brands, what’s old is literally new again.
With cultural nostalgia in full force, more brands are digging through their archives to relaunch or revisit old collections. In 2025, Chloé reintroduced its iconic Paddington bag after 20 years, under creative director Chemena Kamali. In April, Banana Republic brought back adventure-oriented pieces from its archives, in collaboration with the nonprofit The Explorers Club. Also in the spring, Giorgio Armani announced Archivio, 13 men’s and women’s looks from the brand’s back catalog that were remade for 2026.
Brands are going retro largely to appeal to the next generation, executives told Modern Retail. For one, many younger shoppers (especially Gen Z) have a strong appetite for vintage aesthetics amid mass consumerism and fast fashion. Some, as Pacsun reported in its recent Youth Report, are feeling a wave of “anemoia,” or a longing for a past they never lived. TV shows like “Love Story,” which are set in the 1990s, are also driving demand for brands of the era, like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.
But it goes beyond that, too. For young customers, vintage-inspired collections are a way to refute fast-changing trends and play up a sense of individuality. “I can’t tell you how embarrassing it is to go to a party and walk in and see four people with the exact same shirt,” Hannah Schwartz, 18, said at Shoptalk Fall. “We want something a bit unique.”
Express, which launched in 1980, is one of the brands taking note of this sentiment. Young shoppers are “really a big part of what’s bringing back some of these iconic looks and silhouettes and interpreting [them] in their own way,” said Joe Berean, the brand’s chief marketing officer.
Express went back to its archives and those of its former menswear brand, Structure, when launching Express Archives, an apparel capsule reviving original styles from the 1990s and early 2000s. Archive’s collection ($64-$188) debuted in September and includes key staples like the ’95 Color Block Sweatshirt, the ’98 Utility Cargo Pant and the ’01 Rugby Stripe Polo. While the pieces’ colors, silhouettes and overall design remain the same, Express updated some fabrications to include newer technologies around stretch in denim, for example.
Express has gone back into the archives before, typically by bringing back graphics on T-shirts. But with so much renewed attention on the 1990s, Express wanted to showcase how it helped set some of the era’s trends, like exaggerated proportions, Berean told Modern Retail.
“We see customers dressing this way on the street,” he said. “It’s self-referential for us, in the sense that, in these times, we were ubiquitous for certain looks and elements of style. To see them now come back, and to see this new generation of customers embracing them, excited us.”
Berean said customers are drawn to “the nostalgic value” of the collection, especially when it comes to styles like bootcut denim. But shoppers are also reimagining these looks for today. Some of the most popular pieces in Express’s archival collection are oversized graphic sweatshirts that Gen Z women are pairing with miniskirts. “Anecdotally, our store teams are saying they’re seeing a younger customer base drawn into this,” Berean said.
Express is also partnering with menswear creators Jon Alan (120,000 Instagram followers), Grant Solis (17,200 Instagram followers) and Nicolas Herbert (18,400 Instagram followers) to provide style inspiration.
Vera Bradley, which launched in 1982 and is in the midst of a larger turnaround, is rereleasing older prints as limited editions as it looks to resonate with a younger customer. Gen Z, broadly speaking, is interested in personal expression, and Vera Bradley knows “that she looks for those special patterns that she can’t necessarily find anymore,” said Melinda Paraie, the company’s chief brand officer.
In September, the brand released its Remix Collection, which features its Original 100 Handbag ($135), Maisie Handbag ($100) and Original Duffel ($155) in the older, preppy prints Ditsy Bandana Navy and Ditsy Bandana Yellow. In March, Vera Bradley had its design team revisit the Original 100 Handbag and create a bespoke collection of 50 bags with motifs like roses and rodeos.
“Our customer loves collecting, and the bags sold out in under 30 seconds,” Paraie told Modern Retail. “And interestingly, it was all Gen Z and new consumers to the brand [who bought the bags].” Vera Bradley teased the launch on social media, earning comments including, “Ughh please do this again!!!” and “I wish we could get back all the old styles.”
Next up, Vera Bradley will be launching a holiday print called Chelsea Plaid, which comes from its archives and was once used as the interior lining of a bag. The company is playing up its historic Vera Bear icon and launching a new teddy bear pattern with its own border, too.
Crocs, which launched in 2002 and is leaning more heavily into personalization, relaunched its Crocband Clog earlier this year. The Crocband debuted in 2009 and has a retro, sporty silhouette with a heel strap. Crocs unveiled two new silhouettes of Crocbands (the Crocband Runner and Crocband Gum) in the spring. It also developed Crocband products in collaboration with Florence by Mills and Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Crocs, which turns 25 next year, has accumulated many different styles in its archive, Lori Foglia, the brand’s chief product officer, told Modern Retail. “Crocband was one that, from a trend and timing perspective, really aligned with what’s happening [in culture],” she said. “It’s more of a low profile, in the sense that things are getting slimmer.”
Anne Mehlman, Crocs’s president, added that the brand goes back to the archives when it notices “style trends that nod to” Crocs’s older styles, like sports heritage. Still, Foglia said Crocs only revisits its archives every couple of years, including when a partner is looking for inspiration. The Irish fashion designer Simone Rocha, for instance, consulted the archives before putting her spin on Crocs sandals. Any reissue or revamp “has to be authentic with our brand DNA,” Foglia said.
This sentiment is true at Vera Bradley, as well, Paraie said. Even when looking to the past, the brand needs to create products and prints that “speak to what’s going on today,” she said. “We’ll recolor them, we might update them, we might run them as is, but [they need to] fit within the story that we’re telling for the season.”
“We’re always making sure that, even if they’re old, they have some relevance in how we want to storytell going forward,” she added.