Natasha Lyonne Wants Us All to Take a Compliment in Her New Old Navy Campaign

Celebrity casting can be hit or miss in the fashion world, but as the face of Old Navy’s new fall campaign, Natasha Lyonne is the perfect fit. Not only do the brand’s Pixie and Taylor pants, dropping in fresh prints and color ways this fall, fit seamlessly into Lyonne’s effortlessly cool aesthetic, but the Poker Face star feels a deep kinship with the brand’s focus on affordable fashion.

“It aligns with my greater moral take in a sort of funny way,” Lyonne tells InStyle. “That’s not to say that I don't love my Gucci loafers, but the world has so many ways of making you feel small. Ultimately, what I love so much about Old Navy is the idea of democratizing fashion, ending of gatekeeping, the egalitarian view of 'everybody's welcome.'” 

In the two commercials, which drop today, Lyonne is complimented on her ‘fits featuring Old Navy’s Pixie and Taylor pants. In both instances, time freezes and, addressing the audience directly, Lyonne walks us through the entirely relatable experience of compliment angst, before getting back to the compliment at hand and dropping the campaign’s slogan, “Thanks. It’s Old Navy.” 

Owning one’s unique aesthetic, especially when it comes with an affordable price tag instead of a heftier designer one, is refreshing in 2023, when quiet luxury and TikTok trend homogeny seem to reign supreme, but the campaign works on a deeper level too. It’s a celebration of self, personal style, and the very human struggle to actively do both. Poking a bit of snark-free fun at just how difficult this can be is the cherry on top of the campaign’s feel good vibes.  

“I like that you see her going through that inner monologue,” Lyonne says of the ads. “At some point it became cool to be self-deprecating. I don't know when in the zeitgeist we decided that it was hip to sort of insult oneself,” she says, before admitting that “it’s something I’m trying to get myself out of, but old habits die hard.“ 

Regardless of when dressing oneself down dug itself into how we get dressed, it’s safe to say that self-deprecation plays a big role in many people’s lives, in both personal and professional levels. As a producer and writer as well an actor, Lyonne struggles against it on the daily. “I do think that women are raised from a young age to do all kinds of things of politeness,” she says. “I've had male partners at work sort of co-direct,” she shares, going on to describe an email she’d written that was eventually rewritten by a male coworker. “He took out all of the ‘I'm sorry's’ [and places] where I explained myself, and I just felt so ashamed. I'm sort of masculine in so many ways. Nobody loves a blazer more than me. Yet here I was falling into that old trap where the best thing to do is apologize.”

While Lyonne is quick to point out that frequent apologizing isn’t entirely based in womanhood — “I often think that gender is over. I don't know it's as simple as all that anymore,” she says — she appreciates Old Navy’s focus on women complimenting women, rather than creating a competitive atmosphere.

“Advertising really gets in our heads at a very young age that we're supposed to be in competition with each other," she says, adding that starting a production company was helpful in how she worked and interacted with other women. "Rather than being jealous, I saw them as partners in crime. That was a huge tectonic plate shifting revelation for me to see them as allies instead of enemies. I really think that's something that's manufactured by society."

The Old Navy campaign, she says, builds on that that more positive, supportive energy. "[The campaign] has a great attitude. I love the way those women are communicating with each other.”

Good vibes aside, Lyonne is authentically picking up what Old Navy is putting down. “It definitely has big boss energy, but it’s also sort of sexy,” she says of her vibrant red look featuring the Pixie Pant. The five-time Emmy nominee is equally enthusiastic about the night-out ‘fit centered around a pair of Old Navy’s Taylor Trousers.

“It’s something I do a lot in my real life, an oversized blazer, but the waistline is hitting at just the right place," she explains. "You have pockets so you don't need a purse, which I always think is cool. Let's say in this imaginary situation that that girl had met somebody at that imaginary concert that night. She could have gone right to work the next day. You see what I'm saying? It’s a strong look. You can channel any energy you want and it'll match your energy.”

While you might spot Lyonne sporting a pair of Old Navy Pixie Pants and on-trend oversized blazer, there are a few popular trends the actor, writer, and director won’t be wearing any time soon. Among them, low-rise jeans with or without a flash of whale-tail. “I respect it a bit and it's funny, just from a comedic basis. It's just such an absurd thing," she says, recalling: "Around 1994, I was sort of a raver, so I had a little army camo baby tee, baggy pants, and a little baby backpack, but I don't really need to see it come back. No, I already lived it.”