Emily Ratajkowski has spent a decade being an engine of fashion trends. Her stated interest now is narrower and more practical: clothes that feel like her. Which is roughly the argument of Abercrombie and Fitch's autumn 2026 denim campaign, in which she is the lead.
Shot by Cass Bird, the campaign also features Paloma Elsesser and the New York Giants players Jaxson Dart and Malik Nabers, and follows Ratajkowski through downtown Manhattan in relaxed low rise jeans worn with trench coats, leather jackets and men's striped ties.
The brand she grew up with, and the one it is now
Like most millennials she came of age during the label's first cultural peak, and she is candid that the version she is fronting is a different proposition. She grew up in southern California, she told ELLE, so her style was always casual, and Abercrombie was part of that period. She remembers owning their jeans and liking how little thought they required, which is still what she looks for.
What drew her back was the idea of returning to something embedded in American fashion history and looking at it through a contemporary lens rather than a nostalgic one.
On dressing in New York
New York remains her favourite city to get dressed in, and her reasoning is sharper than the usual compliment. Everyone there knows they are being looked at, she says, while still having an actual day to get through. The style comes from the collision of practicality and individuality.
What she wants from a pair of jeans
Her test is a good one. “The best jeans are the ones you stop thinking about once you put them on,” she says. “They should feel lived in.” She has moved decisively toward relaxed silhouettes, and says she cares less about trends now than about whether a piece fits into her life.
The closet she would raid
Rihanna's, circa the 2000s. What appeals is less any particular garment than the mood of the period, when fashion still carried the promise that clothes could transform you completely. Some of it, she concedes, looks funny now and is very much of its moment, but there was a charm in how optimistic it all was.
As for the present, what she enjoys is watching people have fun with denim again and play with proportion, which is as close to a trend endorsement as this interview gets.