Hit or Miss: Old Navy Pride Shirts

Sydney Lawson
Sydney Lawson
June 1, 2011

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With gay pride shirts becoming popular for stores like American Apparel, designs are surfacing from new and unexpected venues.  Old Navy is the first major retailer to offer a shirt and has just released a set of four gay pride tees featuring two designs (right now the shirts are only available in 26 of their stores.)

The first design features a white background with the words “Love Proudly” depicted twice in rainbow colors. This design, offered in v-neck and with ruffled sleeves falls short of accomplishing anything positive. The shirt appears cheap and offers absolutely no element of fashion to the wearer. Another miss is the branding “Old Navy Pride 2011″. This is also cheap as, lets be honest, not many people want to admit they are wearing Old Navy let alone advertise it.

The other design was a pleasant surprise. With a basic navy coloring set off by what appears to be paintbrush strokes that create the colors of the rainbow. offered in both crew neck and v neck styles, the design is simple and modern and could be a fun accent for an outfit.

Kristen Bell is seen wearing one of the styles paired with a high waisted skirt and blazer and the outfit appears smart and trendy. I would definitely recommend higher waistlines with this style because of the amount of blank space at the bottom of the shirt or shorter bottoms. One faux paus to avoid with this style is trying to match the bottom to one of the colors in the shirt. This, in my opinion, would really cheapen the look and appear too forced.

I have to say that with the pride shirts, Old Navy both hit and missed the target. The white shirts belong in an Aeropostale, Limited Too (or Justice) or some youth store that no fashion forward adult has any business shopping in. The navy shirt on the other hand has potential to be a key piece in any wardrobe to build outfits around.

Check the shirts out and decide for yourself below.

 

    Sydney hails from Virginia Beach and is a rising senior at Virginia Commonwealth University with a major in Fashion Merchandising and a minor in media studies.