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Typically, Shay Mitchell is not a jeans-on-the-plane girl; but lately, she’s reconsidering. The Béis founder and actor is teaming up with Gap for a 26-piece limited edition line of apparel and luggage that launches August 1—and it all started with denim.
“I’ve always loved Gap denim and the blues that they’re known for—so right off the bat, we were like: How do we make this twill look for our suitcases?” says Mitchell. It turns out, finding the right shade of blue for a piece of luggage is about as difficult as landing on a wash for your jeans. After some trial and error, a pretty shade of pale aqua set the stage for the travel bags; from there, building out the rest of the collection was a direct result of Mitchell’s personal travel wish list.
“I just wanted there to be a lot of layers because that’s how I travel: in layers,” she explains. Each clothing item is designed as much for the destination as the trip itself; everything goes well together, but is easy to mix in with your vacation wardrobe, too. There’s a pair of cargo pants that’ll keep you warm in arctic cabins and zip off into shorts for warmer locations. (“They’re not like your dad’s hiking ones,” adds Mitchell, who wears them with a hoodie to travel and then swaps in heels and a tank top when she lands.) There’s a jumpsuit with a stretchy bandeau top you can roll down to wear as trousers. There’s a black knit dress that works double duty as a beach cover-up and a fancy frock for dinners out. As for the aforementioned plane jeans, they got a makeover, too: This collection’s version is a cotton-blend knit, printed with a trompe l’oeil denim effect that mimics the look of the real thing but is ten times more comfortable.
Then there are the pieces whose functionality may not be immediately noticeable. What looks like a regular hoodie with an oversized hood (another smart feature: It’s meant to cover your eyes and double as a mask) is actually a neck pillow in disguise. “One thing you won’t ever see me with is a travel pillow—they’re so cumbersome,” says Mitchell. The solution? She and the Gap team built one into the neck of the sweatshirt. It inflates in seconds and deflates as soon as you unscrew a tiny tube. “Nobody would ever know that it’s in your hoodie,” she adds.
These are the kinds of savvy features you realize are missing from the market when you’re a seasoned traveler like Mitchell. Even the smaller pieces, like a plush sweatsuit for toddlers, were inspired by her experiences. She frequently flies with her children, Atlas and Rome (who also star in the lookbook for the collection—it’s a family affair), and wanted to incorporate them into the line: “They started drawing on their clothes and I ended up spending so much of the trip being like, no, don’t do that; no, put that pen down… after the 118th time, I thought, let me give you something that you can color on yourself with,” she says. The kid-friendly print is the direct result of those doodles. And if they do take marker to cotton: “I don’t care because I can throw it in the wash and we’re good to go!”
The collection is a full-circle moment for Mitchell, who has been a loyal Gap fan for decades and had fun re-imagining some of the brand’s most iconic staples. “My childhood best friend and I would always go to Gap before the new school year and get matching overalls,” she says. “I have such core memories of it. Her and I were just having a night and I’m showing her the new collection… it’s wild. We really had fun with the collection. It’s playful while still being these timeless items that won’t go out of trend.”
Shop an edit of the collection, below.
