Limited Too makes a comeback, catering to grown-up fans

(CNN) — Limited Too’s colorful, girly clothing defined childhood for many American Millennials. Now, the brand is back — this time, for adults.

The brand, which first shuttered back in 2008 amid economic woes, came back this summer at department store chain Kohl’s. The new lines featured all the classic pieces reimagined for 2024: Think sporty pullovers, plaid skorts and patterned A-line dresses, all made with tweens in mind.

The outcry was immediate: Where were the adult sizes? The question from Millennials — armed with credit cards and ready to relive their youth — flooded comments sections on social media. And Limited Too listened: The brand’s first foray into adult clothes launches Monday with a holiday capsule collection, while a full line is scheduled to launch next spring.

“The expansion of Limited Too into more sizes is a dream that’s come to life because of our amazing fans. When we first relaunched, our mission was to bring back that fun and brand spirit for today’s tweens,” said Petra Kennedy, a design manager for the brand. “But as we listened to our OG fans who’ve grown up loving Limited Too — it became clear that the magic wasn’t just for the past. They wanted to relive those special moments, and we want to make that happen.”

Limited Too’s return is the latest in a Y2K renaissance happening across fashion, as mall brands of yore stage their comeback in an appeal to an older, more mature, audience.

Nostalgia for mall brands spurs their return

For Lady Natasha Fines, founder and designer behind the Lady Fines adaptive fashion brand, wearing Limited Too as a young girl made her feel “unstoppable,” she told CNN. As a 32-year-old, she finds that vibrancy missing from brands marketed to her age group now.

“I don’t feel like I fit the mold of that basic girl shopping at Zara,” Fines said, noting that much of contemporary women’s fashion is more toned-down neutrals than the flashy, sequined outfits of the early 2000s. “I really love to play with colors with my wardrobe, and so I just felt super excited that, oh my gosh, the way that I felt when I was a little girl — I could feel like that now.”

At its height, Limited Too — the tween spinoff of women’s wear brand The Limited, with 560 stores nationwide before its shuttering — was the pinnacle of middle school cool. The shopping experience was fun and girly; the stores, full of sequins and neon pink, were a one-stop shop for everything from glitter pens to lilac sweatpants stamped with the brand’s name. Shopping there wasn’t just another errand, it was an outing, complete with photo booths to commemorate the experience.

Fines isn’t the only one yearning for the brands of her childhood. Many mall brands — like Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap and even Delia’s — have made some sort of comeback in recent years.

Some of those brands, like Abercrombie, have changed their inventory to meet the needs of current Millennials who remember the store from their teen years, said fashion industry analyst Kristen Classi-Zummo. Rather than sell today’s teens branded hoodies and preppy ensembles, Abercrombie is instead appealing to an older demographic, who may have shopped at their stores before. (Their tactic has worked; the brand’s stock has grown and its sales have even outpaced analysts’ forecasts.)

In Limited Too’s case, Classi-Zummo said, it’s more about nostalgia. Especially as Y2K fashion floods our culture once more, Millennials who grew up with these items may desire them even more. And now, with the rise of online platforms and third-party resale websites, tracking down, say, a Hello Kitty sweater you remember from childhood is easier than ever.

“You could track that (sweater) down on a resale site and find it for you or for your child,” Classi-Zummo said. “The assortment has expanded so much, it allows consumers to go down these paths of nostalgia that they might not have had the ability to do a decade or two ago.”

For many, like Fines, those paths of nostalgia might lead them right back to Limited Too.

Nostalgia tends to rear its head during times of perceived social instability, said Charity Armstead, a former fashion professor at Brenau University in Georgia. And fashion in response, can reflect a time when things felt less complicated, more secure.

Limited Too’s capsule, with its playful velour tracksuits and cropped baby-doll tees, certainly plays into that. But the details are different. The models are older, they’re wearing heels, and they all have that very 2020 middle part in their hair.

“Basically, you’ve got clothing here that makes people feel comfortable,” Armstead said. “Both physically, and then also emotionally.”

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