Do you want to dress like a popular tween girl in 1999? Then I have great news for you: Limited Too is back, and it’s selling clothes for nostalgia-pilled adults. The mall staple, which started as a little-sister brand to Les Wexner’s the Limited before expanding to 560 locations at its peak, was the spot for varsity jackets, spaghetti straps, blue cloud-printed pajamas, and mini lip glosses at twice the price they’d be at Claire’s down the hall. Its catalogues were full of impossibly cool girl models. (Including, as it turns out, Summer House’s Paige DeSorbo.) I have vivid memories of piling into the photo sticker booth and searching through tables covered with glittery makeup while Destiny’s Child piped through the speakers. In 2004, the brand expanded with a cheaper tween sister chain called Justice.
But tweens’ love affair with the store didn’t last. In 2008, when Limited Too was struggling as the economy began to tank, its owners closed or converted all its stores into Justice locations. That was the end of the story until 2015, when a retail licensing firm called Bluestar acquired Limited Too’s trademarks. (Bluestar has been in the news again recently, having just bought Off-White from LVMH.)
Now, like Delia’s, Bebe, and so many other mall brands of yore, Limited Too is back. First, it relaunched this summer as a Kohl’s line of bomber jackets and plaid dresses for tweens. But its Instagram comments were full of demands from its original fans. Millennials wanted Limited Too to start selling the same items marketed to tweens in adult sizes, too. “If we don’t get adult sizes we’re rioting haha! Ladies we ride at dawn!” said one commenter. “I’m a millennial mom and would adore getting my daughter into Limited Too … but not as much as I would LOSE MY SHIT AND LOVE adult sizes!!! Please!!!” When the brand actually launched in July and there were no adult sizes, the disappointment was widespread. “So the influencers at the launch party got adult sizes but the regular folk don’t?” said one commenter.
But as it turns out, the powers that be were listening. Last week, Limited Too announced on Instagram that it will be releasing an adult-size collection in the spring of 2025 as a “tribute to our cherished OGs that have supported us all along.” A smaller first batch of what the brand is calling “LTD 2.0” will launch on October 15. The only piece they’ve teased so far is a black varsity jacket embroidered with the brand name and “Est. 1987.”
Will a basic black jacket appease Limited Too’s original fans? Maybe some of the women just want to wear that logo again, especially if it was out of their family’s budget the first time around. But others were wondering what happened to the brightly colored bucket hats and neon orange and pink floral shorts they remember from their childhood. “This super bland collection that looks nothing like the Y2K LTD we love,” said one commenter. “Sincerely and truly, please prove me wrong and release back the colorful joy of LTD.”
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