Old Navy Plus-Size: An Honest 6-Month Review

I went on a budget last year. Not a real one — I’m a person with a salary and a 401k — but a “no single item over $80 unless it’s outerwear or shoes” budget. From September through February, I wore Old Navy plus-size pieces 4 to 5 days a week. Some of them I loved. Some of them I kept anyway because of the price. And one of them became my favorite purchase of 2025.

Here’s the whole thing, honestly.

The store visit

The Old Navy on 5th Ave near my office is small. The plus-size section is in the back, near the fitting rooms, and on the day I went (a Tuesday in early September, mid-afternoon, almost empty) there were maybe 12 racks. Two were jeans. One was tees. One was the “Built-In Sculpt” line. The rest was a mix.

I tried on maybe 14 things. I bought 7. I kept 5. Two went back the next week. The sales associate, whose name I think was Denise, told me the linen-blend pants always sell out by October and to come back early if I wanted a specific color. I did. The receipt is in my desk drawer.

What I bought, in detail

• 2x High-Waisted Wide-Leg Jeans, $40 each
• 3x Soft-Spun Crew-Neck Tee, $25 each
• 1x Built-In Sculpt Pull-On Pant, $54
• 1x Linen-Blend Wide-Leg Pant, $50

Total before tax: $295. I have receipts.

The $40 high-waisted jeans pilled. By November.

I wore the high-waisted wide-leg jeans twice a week. By November, the inner thighs were visibly pilled. By January, the seat had started to thin. I washed them inside-out in cold water, which is the only way I wash jeans. I still have them, but I’m honest about what they are now: weekend jeans, dog-walking jeans, not office jeans.

This is the part of Old Navy plus-size that frustrates me. The jeans are cut for a real plus-size body. The rise is right, the hip is right, the waist doesn’t gap. The fabric is the problem. It’s a poly-cotton-spandex blend that’s heavy enough to feel like jeans but light enough to pill in three months under friction.

For $40 you are buying a six-month pair of jeans. That’s not a complaint, exactly. It’s just the truth. Decide accordingly.

The $25 tees held up. All six of them.

The Soft-Spun Crew-Neck Tee is the single best budget basic I’ve found in three years of looking. I bought three in September. I bought three more in November. They are all still in my drawer. They have not pilled. They have not stretched out at the neck. They have not gone sheer in the wash. They cost $25.

I wear them under everything. I wear them alone on weekends. I wear them to bed sometimes, which is the highest compliment I can give a t-shirt.

If Old Navy plus-size discontinued every line except this one, I’d still be a customer.

The “Built-In Sculpt” line is mostly marketing

The Built-In Sculpt Pull-On Pant was the piece I was most excited about. $54 for what was, essentially, a wide-leg trouser with built-in compression. The pitch: get dressed and look pulled together without wearing separate shapewear.

The reality: the compression was negligible. I wore them for a week and felt nothing different from a regular pull-on pant. The fabric was thicker than I wanted. The color was a navy that read almost-black in person, which was fine. But the “sculpt” was a stretch-knit waistband that I’ve seen on a $30 pair of Amazon trousers.

I returned them. I bought a regular pair of pull-on pants from Universal Standard on sale instead. The compression on those is real. The difference is, the Universal Standard ones cost $98, and the Old Navy ones cost $54, and you are getting what you pay for.

The linen-blend pants are my favorite purchase of 2025

The linen-blend wide-leg pants were the gamble. $50 for a lined, full-length pant in a fabric that historically doesn’t survive my laundry. I bought them in cream and in olive. I wore them through September and October. I wore them once in December with tights underneath.

They are the most-commented-on piece of clothing I own. I’ve gotten more “where are those from?” on these pants than on any single item I’ve bought in three years. They wash well on cold, they hang-dry, they do not wrinkle as badly as pure linen. They look like they cost three times what they cost.

I bought a second pair in black in February. I’ll probably buy a third pair in summer when they restock the cream.

What I learned in six months

Old Navy plus-size is a basics store, not a wardrobe store. The tees are worth the price. The jeans are worth it if you understand they’re a six-month pair. The marketing lines are mostly marketing. And the linen-blend pants are a hidden gem that nobody talks about.

I will keep shopping there for the tees. I will probably skip the jeans next time and save up for a pair of Levi’s. I will absolutely buy the linen-blend pants again.

That’s the report. Six months, $295, two returns, one favorite purchase of the year.

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