C-Suite Unscripted · Nov 4, 2026 · 31m · 25m saved
With Jennifer Foyle, President and Executive Creative Director of AE and Aerie at American Eagle Outfitters
Aerie's intimates line was once just one table doing about $200 million in sales, going up against a competitor that held roughly 80% of the specialty intimate-apparel market. It is now a $2 billion brand, built in part on a pledge American Eagle has just extended to artificial intelligence: no AI-generated models in Aerie's marketing.
Most apparel brands are leaning on AI to cut production costs; Jennifer Foyle, President and Executive Creative Director of AE and Aerie, says Aerie is doing the opposite.
"We've made a recent commitment not to use AI to generate our models, who are our customers, who are our people." — Jennifer Foyle
Jennifer has spent more than a decade turning struggling apparel businesses around — closing about 100 of Aerie's 136 stores to save the brand before growing it, after earlier runs at Bloomingdale's, Gap and J.Crew. She told Maggie McGrath, who hosts Forbes's C-Suite Unscripted, how she built Aerie and why she won't let AI touch its advertising.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 31 minutes of audio, 6 minutes of reading.
Here are the 5 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Aerie's "100% Aerie Real" campaign, born from a personal moment, is tied directly to sales growth
Jennifer says "without real, Aerie is nothing"
Aerie has committed to never use AI-generated models in its marketing
AI stays limited to back-end forecasting and demand tools
Aerie grew from one $200 million table to a $2 billion brand by first shrinking
About 100 of 136 stores were closed before the business expanded again
Jennifer's turnarounds ran through Bloomingdale's, Gap, J.Crew and Calypso St. Barth
A decade-plus training program at Bloomingdale's started on the sales floor
Jennifer sees room for Aerie to reach $10 billion, helped by West Coast, southern and international expansion
1. Why Aerie Went Real
Jennifer traced Aerie's defining ad campaign to a personal moment early in her tenure at the brand. Her young daughter looked in the mirror and asked a question that stuck with her.
Jennifer's daughter asking if she was beautiful shaped Aerie's unretouched-model campaign
"Mom, am I beautiful?" — Jennifer Foyle's daughter, as recounted by Foyle
Around the same time, a creative director showed Jennifer a new photo shoot and told her, proudly, that none of the models had been airbrushed — and she noticed scars and cellulite she realized the brand should be celebrating instead of hiding. That became the "100% Aerie Real" campaign.
Aerie's "100% Aerie Real" campaign cannot be separated from its sales growth, Jennifer says
"Real starts at home. It starts with what I do every day when I wake up... without real, Aerie is nothing." — Jennifer Foyle
She said the positioning changed real customer behavior, not just marketing: she pointed to a mother whose daughter now wears her diabetes patch proudly on the beach because of Aerie's ad campaigns.
