Tucked away in a cavernous studio in Glendale, the members of global juggernaut girl group KATSEYE are getting ready to dance.
Clad in head-to-toe denim, the six women stand in a soft white room that throbs like an amp — the Breathing Room, it’s called — inspired by the feeling of being inside a cotton T-shirt.
Daniela Avanzini snaps a selfie, and they prepare for another take. Music pounds through the speakers as dancers mill about stretching, rehearsing, or getting their photos taken. The song playing is familiar, a generational earworm: “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard…”
A countdown starts and KATSEYE snaps into sync, standing in a line facing the camera. The Breathing Room becomes a blur of energy as they whip their hair back and raise their arms. Between the thudding Kelis and the low-rise belted baggy Gap jeans, it feels like some sort of time warp.
When it comes to the great mall brand resurgence, no one has been doing it like Gap — a brand that has tapped directly into the vein of cool to showcase their heritage staple pieces. In recent years, they’ve partnered with the likes of Troye Sivan and Tyla in campaigns that highlighted the relationship between dance, music, and fashion. So it only made sense that they’d tap with KATSEYE, of “Touch” and “Gnarly” fame, to model their chic, comfortable low-rise denim. “We were just waiting for the right time to work with” KATSEYE, says Erika Everett, Gap’s VP of Marketing. “We had our eye on these girls for a while.”
It can be difficult for a legacy brand to stay relevant to younger audiences, Everett says, but taking a core tenet of Gap — their belief in creativity — and making it feel fresh has been key to reaching new shoppers. “The creative language of music and movement and dance has been part of Gap, who we are and how we’ve shown up over the years,” she says. “So for us, it’s about pushing that narrative forward in a way that feels modern.”
Calvin Leung, Gap’s VP of Creative, says one of the campaign’s goals was to illustrate how everyone can showcase their individuality through a single clothing trend. “Denim is this amazing fabric that tells a lot of stories,” he says. “The destruction, the distressed nature of it, each person’s is unique. That comes through movement and happens only through movement. It’s the perfect canvas for dance because it tells a story in the same way dance does.”
Each of the six KATSEYE members have dance backgrounds — particularly lifelong competitive dancers Avanzini and Megan Skiendiel, the latter recognizable by her pale pink bangs. The women came together as a part of K-pop behemoth HYBE’s competition show Dream Academy, where international contestants train in dance and vocals to earn one of six spots in the final group.
Choreographer Robbie Blue says the movement for the campaign pulls from hip-hop, ballet, jazz funk, musical theater, and old-school pop. In the group’s early days, fans were quick to identify a seven-year-old Avanzini on America’s Got Talent bossing her partner around, saying: “Hurry up! Don’t be scared, don’t get shy, just move it!”
KATSEYE’s Lara Rajagopalan says that each member has their own sense of style, including signature accessories such as her bindis and Manon Bannerman’s waist chains. But there are throughlines in the trends they all enjoy. “We really, really like baggy clothing.” she says. “We’re all so individual, but if there’s one thing we like together, it’s super oversized.”
Like most children of the ’90s and aughts, KATSEYE grew up with Gap in their lives. Skiendiel used to shop at the mall with her mother, a special memory as the only two girls in the family, and recalls wishing she could be a GapKids model. South Korea-born Yoonchae Jeung used to wear matching navy-and-orange Gap hoodies with her sister.
“I remember walking through the mall with my grandma and passing the Gap store every time,” the Atlanta-born Avanzini adds. “Finally, one day I was like, ‘Can we go in?’”
Skiendiel says that on the first day of the shoot, she and the other members were given custom Gap hoodies. “How crazy is that?” she asks. “As a kid I was shopping for that hoodie, and now I have one with my own name on it.”
Then, of course, there’s the “Milkshake” of it all, a 20-year-old banger that KATSEYE makes feel fresh. Group leader Sophia Laforteza says she thinks the campaign will put the song on every FYP, at the top of every algorithm. “It’s going to skyrocket again,” she says. “It’s going to make the whole campaign as iconic as the song is.”
For now, the energy on set is excited — optimistic. After shooting wraps, Bannerman stands in the sun, recalling the day’s events. It’s the most dancers KATSEYE has worked with so far.
“They sang happy birthday to me because Lara lied to them,” Bannerman says.
Rajagopalan laughs. “I told the dancers it was her 30th birthday.” (Bannerman is 23.)
She asks Bannerman what her birthday wish is.
“Man,” she says. “To keep doing this and to keep having these opportunities—”
“—through her old age,” Rajagopalan adds.
“—exactly. Through the ripe age of 30.”
